->''"Just like Archer and his away team find themselves infected and transformed by an outside agent, ''Enterprise'' itself has been radically altered by the realities of {{the War on Terror}}. The show's core DNA has been overwritten, to the point that shows like 'The Xindi' and 'Anomaly' feel like early episodes of a completely different show."''-->-- [[http://them0vieblog.com/2015/08/05/star-trek-enterprise-extinction-review Darren Mooney]] on ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''

The Reality Subtext extends past the FourthWall to issues surrounding the production itself or on an even larger scale.

During the creation of a work, the rest of the world and its struggles go on. Maybe the author or actor is having relationship issues, or drug issues, or got pregnant, or someone close to them died. Or something major happened in the world: a disaster, a war, the death or birth of a public figure, a chaotic political climate, what have you.

Often these events have an effect on the work, but not one that is visible to the viewer or reader unless they are privy to that outside knowledge. Some subtext is only [[EpilepticTrees speculative]], and some comes from [[WordOfGod first hand sources]] such as interviews and DVDCommentary. Either way, it is either not intentionally called out within the work, or the reference is oblique except to those who are "in on it".

A SubTrope of RealLifeWritesThePlot.

See FunnyAneurysmMoment, HarsherInHindsight, HeartwarmingInHindsight and HilariousInHindsight for the accidental versions of this, as Reality Subtext is at least semi-intentional. Also compare EnforcedMethodActing, and ThrowItIn. May overlap with CreatorBreakdown.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]* Coca-Cola's first television ad with newly signed spokesperson Jordan Spieth was intended to feature the golfer enjoying a Coke on the golf course during a hot day. However, the day the commercial was being shot, it began to pour rain and would not let up. This forced the creators to change the ad concept on the fly. The result? [[https://youtu.be/zDMe3ptHHUk Spieth trying to pass time while waiting for rain to let up so he can film a Coke commercial.]]* Portland, Oregon station KPTV[[note]]at the time a Creator/{{UPN}} affiliate, it switched affiliations with Creator/{{Fox}} station KPDX in 2002 and has been affiliated with Fox ever since[[/note]] was known as "Oregon's 12" for a few years in the 90's. In 1996, the stars of some of the shows they ran (such as ''Series/JudgeJudy'', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'') did a few plugs for the station, but unfortunately [[ItsPronouncedTroPay a lot of them pronounced "Oregon" as "Ore-gone".]] So they made an ad campaign poking fun at this, with some local personalities joining in on the fun.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]* Creator/HayaoMiyazaki made ''Anime/PonyoOnACliffByTheSea'' partly as an apology to his son Goro, who he had publicly feuded with during the production of ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'', Goro's first movie. [[WordOfGod Word of Miyazaki]] is that Sosuke is modeled after young Goro and his mother after his wife, which by logic would make the father who's always away is Miyazaki himself. The Morse code messages the father sends them from his ship when he tells them he's not coming home yet -- "I'm sorry and I love you" -- are thus meant for Miyazaki's family.* The story in ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' was based closely on the experiences of the writer, Nosaka Akiyuki, in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In RealLife, Nosaka [[spoiler:watched his little sister die of starvation]] the same way the main character of the movie did. That the said main character [[spoiler:[[TakeThatMe later starves to death on the floor of JNR Sannomiya Station]] in [[HowWeGotHere the opening of the film]]]] should tell you a bit about how he still feels about that.* The author of the LightNovel ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK!'' (a black comedy slice-of-life show about a hikikomori) is an actual {{hikikomori}}, and even admitted in one of his author notes that he's been living off the royalties of the book and delaying his work on other novels. Also, the dub of the anime based on the book cast Creator/ChrisPatton as the lead character. Patton has admitted to having anxiety issues (including a time in high school where he refused to leave his room). It's hard to tell if this influenced his casting or not, but it certainly helped inform his acting--his work in the show has ended up being one of his most critically praised roles in anime dubbing.* Takotsuboya, known for his DarkFic doujins, comes from a background of soul crushing tragedy of failure after failure as he wanted to become a mangaka but failed in his dreams completely.* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' parallels director Creator/HideakiAnno's [[CreatorBreakdown real life battle with depression]] (hence mental illness being such a major theme of the show), as well as his growing distaste for {{Otaku}} culture. The infamous masturbation scene from ''End of Evangelion'' is often cited as an especially blatant [[TakeThat middle finger aimed at the audience]].** Likewise, Anno later [[CreatorRecovery recovered]] and eventually entered into a happy marriage. It's widely believed that his new lease on life was responsible for the comparatively upbeat and optimistic tone of the first two ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movies. Shortly thereafter, his mental health plummeted once again for the third movie...and, this being Anno, this too is evident in the movie.* ''Anime/YourName'':** One can feel the influence of [[spoiler:the 2011 great earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan]] on certain parts of the film. It's no coincidence that the TimeSkip at the last part is 5 years [[spoiler:at least from Taki's perspective]], just like [[spoiler:5 years passed between the great earthquake in 2011 and the film's release in 2016.]]** Mitsuha's SmallTownBoredom and desire to move to Tokyo reflect the gradual dying-off of rural Japan as their young move away to urban areas.** The novelisation has an exclusive scene where, after the Shinto ritual, Mitsuha and Yotsuha have to entertain some guests and they note afterwards that the party was full of elderly, most likely a jab at the silver tsunami Japan's facing.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* According to the introduction to the Fleischer/Aparo ''ComicBook/TheSpectre'' trade, the only reason the Spectre was revived as a character at all was because then-DC editor Joe Orlando was mugged and the thief got away. This left him to long for a superhero who punished the wicked after every legal recourse has failed. A little research into UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks later, he found some early Spectre stories that were just up that alley, and voila.* The Creator/MarvelComics hero Shang-Chi was initially created as the son of the infamous YellowPeril villain Literature/FuManchu. Since Marvel lost the rights to Fu Manchu in the ensuing decades, whenever Shang-Chi's father appears, he's never referred to by name. This is PlayedForLaughs in an issue of ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'', where T'Challa tries to speak Fu's name, only to be cut off before he can say it.* The Creator/ImageComics miniseries ''Shattered Image'' was intended to be a reverse ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths, where the characters from the various studios making up Image would be briefly shunted off into separate universes, then joined back together, mostly. The original notion was that the Silvestri characters would get their own 'verse, while the Liefeld characters would stay part of the whole. Instead, due to real-world machinations, the Liefeld characters vanish without anyone noticing partway through the series (replaced by similar heroes from other 'verses), and the Silvestri characters leave in a solemn parting scene, then return suddenly in the very last panel.* When [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and Superman see each other, they usually end up throwing punches, much more often than is typical for LetsYouAndHimFight. This is largely a nod to their very first battle ''in court''. DC Comics sued Fawcett over Captain Marvel being too similar to the Man of Steel, and eventually got the book canceled. Comic writers have since explored this decades later by having the two of them fight one another in the panels.* Creator/DwayneMcDuffie's final ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' arc, which saw the team struggling to stay together and ComicBook/BlackCanary questioning whether she even cared enough to continue with the group, was meant as a metaphor for [=McDuffie=]'s own deteriorating relationship with Creator/DCComics. Not too long after, he was fired for publicly speaking out against the ExecutiveMeddling his run had received.** His earlier storyline with the team captured by Anansi was also commentary on ExecutiveMeddling. Anansi rewrites reality and causes a bunch of ForWantOfANail moments that result in a radically different Justice League, mirroring the way [=Dwayne=] felt his own storylines were being twisted and taken away from him. * Creator/PeterDavid has expressed displeasure over the fact that Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}} killed off Ned Leeds in the ''Spider-Man vs. ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' one-shot without consulting him, as David had planned on revealing that Leeds was the Hobgoblin. In the tie-in issue of ''Amazing Spider-Man'' that dealt with the aftermath of Ned's death, Comicbook/TheKingpin angrily tells the Foreigner (the man who arranged Ned's murder) that he should have consulted him first, and that [[TakeThat such a rash move displayed a complete and utter lack of respect]].* Way back in ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #12, Reed said that the team had redesigned their Fantasticar because "fans throughout the country" had complained about how stupid it looked. This was Creator/StanLee's way of acknowledging complaints from real world fans, who had mocked the Fantasticar from its inception.* ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #416 (October, 1996) included a story by Tom [=DeFalco=] where the Daily Bugle is facing financial problems and has to lay off much of its personnel. Meaning that established supporting characters such as Kate Cushing were PutOnABus, with their fates in doubt. Peter Parker himself, who had only recently returned to New York City with the promise of a permanent staff position, was among those fired and faced an unstable future. The story reportedly served as a way for [=DeFalco=] to work "through his feelings" concerning the ongoing financial difficulties of Creator/MarvelComics and a series of Marvel staff layoffs. Some were staffers which [=DeFalco=] himself had hired for Marvel, and he felt partly responsible for the company letting them go like this. Per "The Life of Reilly": "In his Daily Bugle scenes, Tom D. worked in a lot of in-jokes and references to what was going on at Marvel, all of which probably went over the heads of people on the outside, but were glaring obvious to anyone who was working (or had been working) at the company."* The last [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story Creator/CarlBarks wrote before going into semi-retirement was ''King Scrooge the First'' (written 1966, published 1967). It is the story of an immortal man who is tired of his long life and seeks death. He describes himself as "tired, and old and lonely". The story is considered to express the 65-year-old Bark's own feelings of fatigue and decision to end a whole era of his life.* A few years before Creator/StanLee introduced Comicbook/DoctorStrange, he created a similar, but far less successful supernatural hero named Doctor Druid. The two characters had strikingly similar origin stories, and many comic historians have commented that Druid was likely a precursor of sorts to Strange. Many years later, ''Avengers Spotlight'' #37 revealed that Doctor Druid and Doctor Strange had actually been empowered by the same man, the Ancient One, and that Druid had essentially been used as a guinea pig to make sure that it would be safe for the Ancient One to make Strange the new Sorcerer Supreme:-->'''Doctor Druid''': ...But I never imagined I was simply...a ''test run for Dr. Strange!''* In the ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl|2011}}'' tie-in to ''[[Comicbook/TheNew52FuturesEnd Future's End]]'', Barbara Gordon tells Cassandra Cain that she admires how Cass never gives up despite having gone through absolute hell. While this fits in-universe, it also references the fact that from 2005-2015, the character was put through a ''lot'' of shit by DC editorial. She was turned into an evil DragonLady, then stripped of the Batgirl title so that she could be replaced by Stephanie Brown, then dumped into ComicBookLimbo, and then brought ''out'' of limbo and given a new identity only to be {{Retcon}}ned out of history after the ComicBook/{{New 52}}. It's been a roller coaster ride to say the least, but her fanbase never gave up on her.* ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'':** In ''The Just #1'', a character reacts in surprise at seeing a comic book and asks if people even read them anymore.** Similarly this little nugget from ''Pax Americana #1'', [[AdaptationDisplacement which comments on the trend of superhero movies being huge at the box office while actual comic sales are in the gutter]].--> Heroes are for movies. The super-hero is dead. * ''[[Comicbook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]]'':** The final issue of ''Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps'' ends with the title characters flying off into the unknown space outside of Battleworld, with the narration [[BolivianArmyEnding commenting that while there's a good chance they might all die]], death is better than simply sitting around and refusing to explore what else is out there. Some have read this as commentary from writer Creator/KellySueDeconnick, as this was her last ''Captain Marvel'' story before she left Marvel Comics to focus on her creator-owned stuff like ''Comicbook/BitchPlanet''. ** In ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' #7, Carol Danvers is lamenting to the comatose body of the female Quasar that she's the reason for Steve Rogers and Comicbook/{{HYDRA}} taking over the United States and Earth's most powerful heroes are stuck behind an impenetrable shield. That she started off [[ComicBook/CivilWarII the second superhuman civil war]] that divided the superhero community again because she was too stubborn to back down, that she wanted people to love her and instead gave them reason to ''hate'' her. This is seen as reflecting on the CharacterDerailment done to Carol due to the story.* The premise of the 2017 ''Comics/{{Youngblood}}'' relaunch is a new team being formed as a RedeemingReplacement for the original team, which has long since disbanded and is publicly reviled for being overly violent, arrogant and putting themselves above the law. Likewise the 2017 relaunch itself is an attempt to revive and update for the [[UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks modern age]] the ''Youngblood'' franchise itself, which has fallen a long way since its heyday in the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks early 90's]], and is now largely remembered as an example of [[Main/DarknessInducedAudienceApathy everything]] [[NinetiesAntiHero wrong]] with that period of comics. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]* Facebook's ''7teen Fanfiction Series'' did this with the Dunphy clan of ''Series/ModernFamily'', creating an Expy for each Dunphy family member and giving them similar first names (exceptions being Terry and Susan to Phil and Claire, respectively). Each story arc that features them has [[BewareTheNiceOnes Michael]], Jonesy's Dad, give Susan a ReasonYouSuckSpeech on why she is a terrible person and why Terry (as well as anyone who associates with her) deserves better. Why? Because [[WordOfGod The Author of 7teen]] despises Claire Dunphy's character and includes legitimate gripes that he (and other people who hate Claire) have with her character in Michael's speeches. However, he has also openly stated that Phil is his favorite character because of his goofy, laid back, genuine NiceGuy demeanor and always felt as though he was often mistreated by her.* When Mykan explained his story of why he hated ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', he stated that one of the reasons why is because friends over time either used him as a means to an end, bullied him in secret, or moved on and even pretended that they didn't know him. Now compare that to one of the reasons why [[spoiler:Beast Boy became Count Logan]] in ''FanFic/TheEndOfEnds'', ''especially'' the last part.* In the infamous [[FanFic/MyImmortal My Immortal]], this happens to the character Willow, who is based on the author's real life friend Raven. When Tara and Raven have a falling out over a sweater and a poster of Gerard Way, Willow fails all her classes and is expelled, after which she is killed by [[PossessionSue B'loody Mary Smith]], and has her corpse raped by [[ILoveTheDead Loopin]]. When the two make up, Willow is brought back with no explanation. It's [[SoBadItsGood that kind of fic]].* ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'':** Izzy's (presumably) {{imaginary friend}} Sunshine is the alter ego of a certain Duncan fangirl, who created the character[[note]]used in LTDI with permission[[/note]] in part to be a ParodySue proxy for her fangirlism.** The [[WordOfGod author describes]] himself and his wife as essentially a real-life Noah/Katie pair. Guess who Noah's crushing on?* From the ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'' series, we have the instance in 20XXV where Reimu gets a hold of rat poison was based off of a recent time when she had found her young nephew, who likes to get into things, with Windex, though that ended differently that what had happened in the story. [[labelnote:Note]]If you're curious and if asked, she will reassure you that her nephew is fine and that she's taken it from him as soon as she has seen him with it.[[/labelnote]]** Yume Ni beating up or otherwise fighting with the other kids is based on the fact that she does not have a good relationship with her siblings. In chapter 82, where she was stabbed with a pair of scissors highlighted the fact further in what partially motivated her to write was a spat she had with her sister.** Some of Reimu's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Baka was based off of something she wanted tell to her older brother, the relationship with whom is strained.** In that line (unrelated to the 20XX series), we get ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'' with Ragyou and Soichiro's divorce because her own parents have divorced when she was around Satsuki's age at the earlier half of the series and we also get a chapter from ''Feel'', with IllGirl Rei being on oxygen therapy and is [[spoiler: implied to have passed on]] by the next chapter was based on the fact that her grandmother (who also suffers from breathing problems) is in hospice. The latter becomes a tad HarsherInHindsight, if one takes into account that her grandmother has just passed.* In the RealPersonFic ''Fanfic/IceIceBaby'', the authors frequently base events off of real-life celebrity scandals and drama. Also, the authors, two theater kids, have recently been adding many musical theater inspired subplots to the fic, including Zachary Quinto's production of "Cobweb!", which features several references to their own high school theater experiences. * The ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' fan film ''Power/Rangers'' does this with two of the original Rangers from ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' and the actors who played them in the series proper, as it had Trini's funeral after the Rangers' final battle (reflecting Thuy Trang's passing) and Billy is shown as having come out as gay (reflecting David Yost, who is gay himself).* ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/92801/why-am-i-crying Why Am I Crying?]]''** Sweetie Belle's arc is based on the author's experiences in learning about, and accepting, the concept of death.** The stuff that happened to Silver Spoon at the camp, including bullies burning her teddy bear in a campfire and leaving her tied to a tree in the woods, were [[TruthInTelevision actual things that happened]] at a camp where a friend of the author's was counselor.** Cheerilee's speech to Scootaloo and not letting her hate and anger consume her enough to become a bully was partly based on an experience of their author's where he attacked a bully and choked him until he turned blue after having all he could take from him.* Appropriately for a ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' fanfic, the author of ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'' draws heavily on his own history of depression when writing Shinji.* In the ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'' series, it's explicitly stated that the founders of the eponymous school decided to establish it for the children of [[Franchise/DragonAge Thedas]] because they were never able to have children of their own. This is also true of one of the authors.* ''[[FanFic/CitadelOfTheHeart Truth and Ideals]]'' had Chapter 72 ending with [[AuthorAvatar Grandis]] in a rather downer mood on a snowy night during the conclusion of the 8th Gym Arc. As the story progresses until its conclusion, Grandis shows a lot of signs of slacking off on the job as he begins [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] with either non-alcoholic, sugar filled drinks and soda, or eating a huge amount of pizza and junk food. In the end, Grandis was very quick to leave once he was no longer necessary, as he felt the need to just take time off and relax for who knows how long for at least the remainder of the year. In what ended up being a more LifeImitatesArt example of this, [[WordOfGod the author confirms]] he had been slacking off much of the remainder of 2017; often drinking caffeine filled soda and eating pizza and other junk food, and being incredibly lazy as he had a lot of anxiety issues over the fact a story he had worked on for over three years was finally over. Due to this, now that he had no need to work on it any time soon, he developed an EmptyNest syndrome regarding it that prevented him from focusing on his other fics.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]* During the production of ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail: Fievel Goes West'', Creator/StevenSpielberg had just finished a nasty divorce with Amy Irving, voice actress of Miss Kitty. What does the film introduce Miss Kitty doing? Breaking up with Tiger.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]* One of the biggest examples of this is the allegory behind ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''. The movie entails the forging of peace between long-standing enemies, {{the Federation}} and the Klingon Empire, as the Klingons face extinction following the destruction of their moon, Praxis. The film, released in 1991, bluntly parallels the ending of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar as tensions between the United States (the Federation) and the Soviet Union (Klingons) had subsided partially due to the potential damage done to Russia, one of the world's greatest superpowers, after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 (the destruction of Praxis).** Additionally, ''Star Trek VI'' marked the official GrandFinale for the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Original Series]]'' era of the TrekVerse and was a major final bow for the original cast, hence their signatures at the end credits. It was also the last ''Star Trek'' production that series creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry was involved in as he passed away during filming.* The reason Creator/MandyPatinkin's HeroicResolve was so convincing in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' is a bit of very dedicated method acting: he thought of Rugen in that scene as being the cancer that killed Patinkin's own RealLife father.--> "''I want my '''father''' back, you son of a bitch.''"** Another bit is the fear in Christopher Guest's performance when he faces down Inigo. Patinkin actually had accidentally injured Guest in a training exercise some time beforehand.* ''Film/MediumCool'', a {{Mockumentary}} shot and filmed during the Chicago 1968 riots outside the Democratic National Convention. [[WordOfGod It was supposed to be]] a film about poverty and [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing media manipulation]], and it was contemplated that the finale would be MLK's planned March on Poverty, but the director had it on word from friends in Chicago that a massive demonstration was about to take place, and then MLK and RFK got assassinated during filming, which were incorporated into the plot. Oh, and the film is shot [[EnforcedMethodActing entirely on-location while events took place]].* In the [[{{Recut}} director's cut]] of the ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' film, an FBI agent offers Laurie a smoke and Laurie responds by glaring at him. In real life Creator/WarnerBros barred her character from smoking for fear of promoting the habit, much to the chagrin of fans and Laurie's actress.* Most of the cast and crew of ''Film/TheFront'' had been blacklisted - their dates of blacklisting are listed under their names during the end credits, including Zero Mostel and director Martin Ritt.* Creator/RobertDeNiro alerted his friend and director Creator/MartinScorsese to boxing biopic ''Film/RagingBull'' in the hope that engaging with the project would help Scorsese address his own self-destructive impulses.* Creator/CharltonHeston appears in the Creator/TimBurton remake of ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001'' as Thade's father. Heston's character, an ape on his deathbed, gives a gun to his son Thade, saying that it has "the power of a thousand swords." His last words, a nod to Heston's original role as the protagonist in the original 1968 film, were [[ActorAllusion "Damn them all to hell"]] regarding the humans[[note]]Heston's character in the original film, a human himself, said the same line in the context of cursing humans for destroying themselves and allowing the apes to replace them[[/note]]. In real life, Charlton Heston was also president of the National Rifle Association.* Similarly, in ''Film/SoylentGreen'' the tears that Thorn sheds for Sol near the climax are real, as Charlton Heston is crying for Creator/EdwardGRobinson who was dying of cancer at the time (this was Robinson's last film).* The family's eldest daughter is entirely missing from ''Film/PoltergeistIITheOtherSide'' and ''Film/PoltergeistIII'', as Dominique Dunne, the actress who played her, had been murdered in 1982. The role was not re-cast and the absence of the character was not mentioned, almost a BrotherChuck. Ms. Dunne also appeared in an episode of ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' playing an abuse victim, but many of the bruises on her face were genuine, inflicted by her boyfriend (her eventual killer).** The actor who played the evil preacher, Julian Beck, was actually that gaunt: he was dying of cancer and didn't need that much makeup to look like a skeleton.** Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne, was noticeably chubby in the third movie due to the medication for her Crohn's disease. She would later die from surgical complications after filming completed in 1988 at [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth 12 years old]].* When Tyler Durden, in his rant about ''Film/FightClub'', says "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars," he glances at Jared Leto's character. Jared Leto had just formed his own rock band, Music/ThirtySecondsToMars, and Tyler's actor, Brad Pitt, is a "movie god" in his own right.* In ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', Pedro Armendáriz, who played Bond's Turkish sidekick Ali Kerim Bey, was dying of cancer during the production and eventually committed suicide to stop the pain. This makes it particularly poignant when his character makes a HeroicSacrifice and disappears from the film.* ''Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders'', a family movie made by recycling bits of footage from a horror anthology rejected by the studio, features Ernest Borgnine as a grandfather who tells his grandson stories from a horror anthology he wrote that the studio rejected.* The scene in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' where Indy [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shot the bad guy]] would never have happened had Creator/HarrisonFord not been suffering from a nasty case of dysentery. The exact sequence of real-life events is disputed, but the scene as finally filmed replaced an elaborate "whip vs. sword" duel that Ford wasn't up to shooting.** According to the ''Making of Indiana Jones'' book, they did actually finish shooting the fight, but a test screening where the audience loved the shooting the swordsman bit convinced George Lucas to use it.** ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom The Temple of Doom's]]'' darker tone was due to Lucas' and Spielberg's real-life breakups with their wives. Which explains [[LiteralMetaphor having a bad guy who rips out people's hearts]].* Brandon Lee's [[FatalMethodActing fatal shooting with a prop gun]] during the filming of ''Film/TheCrow'' made his portrayal of a musician who was shot to death and came back from the dead for revenge very poignant. The scene in the movie where Eric Draven was killed was heavily edited to change it from an explicit view of Draven being shot to a fast cut of Funboy firing a gun at him, but it couldn't be removed completely because it was the basis of the movie's plot. (Part of this was pragmatic, of course, to hide the double's face.)* One of the innumerable executive nightmares surrounding the production of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' was Martin Sheen having a heart attack due to the stress from filming, suspending filming of all his prominent scenes and making his brother double for him.** Then there were the helicopters that the Philippine military lent to Coppola for the famous "air cavalry" scene against a village held by communist Viet Cong insurgents. Those were frequently taken back, interrupting filming, to do actual air cavalry work for the Philippine military units engaged in combat with real communist insurgents.* ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956'' is often cited as a portrait of Red Scare America. Trust no one; for your neighbors, your friends, even your wife could become one of ''them''. a godless Commi--er, pod person! By the same token it's also a view of [=McCarthyism=], with a suspicious Hoover and the FBI keeping Americans under watch. Regardless of any of this, the movie actually averts the trope. WordOfGod stated repeatedly that they were just making a movie and were not going for any social/political commentary.* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Heath Ledger]] is constantly twitching his tongue and licking around his lips. Most people thought this was simply one of the Clown Prince's character traits, but according to [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/29/25-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-dark-knight-saga this article]], it wasn't an idle addition:-->"One of several reasons Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker was so mesmerising was the unnerving way the actor kept sucking at his cheeks and licking his lips. This facial tic was a result of Ledger's initial discomfort with the prosthetic scar make-up, but was eventually adopted as a character idiosyncrasy after Chris Nolan was suitably freaked out." ** Speaking of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Chris Nolan seriously considered using actual footage of the Occupy Wall Street movement, due to the fairly explicit parallels to the movie's plot. He ultimately decided not to, averting the trope.* ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'' wrote in a bit where Creator/ShiaLaBeouf's character Sam gets his hand injured, due to Shia actually injuring his hand when in a car accident during filming. Considering the nature of the movie, it didn't affect filming much at all.* ''Film/TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassus'' was to have starred Creator/HeathLedger, but he died before filming was completed. In a show of support, Creator/JohnnyDepp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell finished the film in his place with the help of a magic mirror (according to an IMDB poster, Ledger has 45 mins of screen-time (out of ~120 total), Law and Farrell 15 each, and Depp 10). [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The three actors then donated their profits from the movie to Heath Ledger's daughter.]]* The Farrelly Brothers had to completely rewrite the ending to ''Film/FeverPitch'' after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. They were able to actually film at the last game of the series because both Farrelly Brothers and star Jimmy Fallon are actual Sox fans and had personal tickets to the games. Their filming was actually caught ''live on Fox's broadcast of the actual game!''** Then again, Fox also produced the film. People unaware of the production probably thought Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore had a thing for each other.** This turned out to mirror the true events of Nick Hornby's book from which a directly adapted film was made; the film--made years after the events-- ends with Arsenal winning a First Division title on the last game of the season, the first in 12 years.* The flashback at the end of ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'' where the family is together for Vito Corleone's birthday was supposed to have him enter at the end, but Creator/MarlonBrando [[AbsenteeActor couldn't be gotten back]], and instead the scene ends with an announcement that he's there and everybody but Michael rushing out to greet him offscreen. Francis Ford Coppola decided he actually liked it better with Vito remaining unseen, since it created a ghostly feeling that the family as it was then, under Vito, is gone forever.* At the end of ''Film/GuessWhosComingToDinner'', Spencer Tracy's character says, "...there is nothing, absolutely nothing, you feel for each other that I didn't feel for Christina.... the memories are still there, and they'll be there if I live to be a hundred and ten... and if it's half of what we felt, it's everything." The tears in Katharine Hepburn's eyes are real - Spencer Tracy was dying, and she and Tracy had been together for twenty-five years. He died soon after, and she never saw the finished film, saying that the memories of Tracy were too painful.* ''Film/AmericanReunion'' is both a reunion in-universe for East Great Falls High Class of 1999, and in reality with all of the original cast members coming together for the first time in over a decade.* ''Film/SpaceJam'': The subplot with Michael Jordan playing baseball is based very loosely on his real life semi-retirement. It's essential to the plot because it means the aliens don't think to steal his basketball skills and this incident in turn leads to him returning to basketball which he also did in real life, making this a sort-of fictional autobiographical account. They even go so far as to acknowledge in film that Jordan is a subpar baseball player and is only being indulged because of his celebrity.** And for those wondering why the hell Bill Murray is in the film trying to play basketball? That's actually a reference to the series of promo ads Murray did for the league circa 1995 claiming he was going to play NBA ball.* In ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'', Norma Desmond, a forgotten silent film star is played by Gloria Swanson, a forgotten silent film star herself. Her butler, Max, who was a leading director in the silent film era, is played by Erich von Stroheim, who was a leading director in the silent film era. For bonus points, the StockFootage of a younger Swanson chosen to represent Norma Desmond as she was as a silent film star was from the obscure feature ''Queen Kelly'', which was directed by von Stroheim. Norma also used to work with Creator/CecilBDeMille, who appears in the film playing himself; in real life, he did work with Swanson several times.* A major backstory in ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' involves CorruptCorporateExecutive Joh Fredersen seducing and marrying Hel, the wife of his best friend [[MadScientist Rotwang]]. Much has been made of this subplot in light of the fact that Thea von Harbou (the scriptwriter) had an affair with and then married Creator/FritzLang (the director), divorcing then-husband Rudolf Kelin-Rogge (the actor who plays Rotwang) in the process. That said, Lang and Klein-Rogge reportedly remained good friends for years after the incident, and Lang repeatedly denied that his films reflected his personal life.* ''Franchise/StarWars'':** The first major action sequence in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', where Luke is attacked by a Wampa, was created solely to explain the scars on Creator/MarkHamill's face from a bad car accident that Hamill was in towards the end of filming ''Film/ANewHope''.** One of Creator/HarrisonFord's more memorable ad-libs in ''Film/ANewHope'' is generally agreed to be the scene where Han attempts to bluff his way through a radio conversation with an Imperial officer on the Death Star after the heroes accidentally get into a firefight with a few Stormtroopers. Han's flustered efforts to bluff his way through the exchange ("Uh... Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you... How are you?") are all the more believable because Ford neglected to memorize his lines for that scene, and actually ''was'' [[IndyPloy improvising as he went along]]. Han's wincing expression at the end of that monologue (as if to say "They couldn't ''possibly'' have bought that...") was actually Ford's expression, as he was absolutely sure that he'd screwed up that take.** General Hux, one of the CoDragons in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', was born during the last days of the Galactic Empire. [[Creator/DomhnallGleeson His actor]] was born on May 12, 1983. ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' was released on May 25 of the same year.* ''Film/SpiderMan1'':** It is believed that following 9/11, an entire scene was cut from the first film where Spidey strings a huge web in between the World Trade towers. There was a trailer composed of this scene (which was, obviously, pulled after the attacks), but whether this scene was from the movie or created specifically for the trailer is less certain.** Likewise the scene where the New Yorkers help out Spidey against Green Goblin as he tries to save a tram of school kids and Mary Jane i.e. the citizens of the city banding together.* When Al Michaels reprised his RealLife role as the broadcaster of the US-Soviet Union hockey game in ''Film/{{Miracle}}'', most of his lines were scripted. However, the last seconds of the game featured the RealLife call from 1980 in the belief that Michaels could never duplicate that same emotion.* ''Film/CannibalTheMusical'' features a subplot about Alferd Packer and his horse, Liane, who runs away and, he later learns, has been ridden by every man in town. The movie was made by Trey Parker shortly after he found out his fiancee Liane had cheated on him.* The Oracle in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' had to be played by a different actor during the last movie, as the previous actor died from complications of diabetes. Hence that strange scene right before she sends the main characters to the Merovingian.* Both the first and last ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' films mirror Creator/SylvesterStallone's story of making them quite movingly. He had over 30 failed screenplays to his name before United Artists took a chance on ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', and he was instantly catapulted to fame and fortune. Then when Stallone tried to make ''Film/RockyBalboa'', it was at a time when he was a laughing stock after several poor career moves, and no one thought the film could be anything but a disaster. Yet when the film was released, the fans all trumpeted it as a worthy conclusion to the story.** This trope was further emphasized with the spin-off film ''Film/{{Creed}}'', which focuses on Adonis, the son of Apollo Creed, trying to become a boxer in his own right with the aid of Rocky's training. The film was the first in the series that Stallone neither wrote nor directed, and it essentially allowed him to pass the torch to Ryan Coogler and Creator/MichaelBJordan in the same way that Rocky does with Adonis. * In ''Film/TheTrain'', it was necessary to add a scene where Burt Lancaster's character was shot and injured while crossing a bridge because the actor had injured his knee playing golf and could only walk with a limp.* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'':** [[HeartwarmingInHindsight Coincidentally]] (it is the exact citation from book, but in the original it may be connected with WWI) this exchange in ''The Fellowship Of The Ring'', which came out in November 2001:--> '''Frodo:''' I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.\\'''Gandalf:''' So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil.** Aragorn is first introduced in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' as "Strider", a mysterious veteran Ranger who unexpectedly joins Frodo and his friends after they've begun their journey to Rivendell, and remains rather aloof from the rest of the Fellowship while guiding and protecting them. This actually parallels how Aragorn's actor, Creator/ViggoMortensen, joined the cast of the movie: he was an unexpected replacement for Stuart Townsend, and joined the cast [[TheOtherMarty after a few of Townsend's scenes had already been filmed]]; while most of the Fellowship's actors had time to get to know each other before filming began, Mortensen was a latecomer, and was somewhat aloof from his castmates during the early part of filming.* The Music/JohnnyCash biopic ''Film/WalkTheLine'' starts out with the tragic death of Johnny's older brother when he was a kid. Creator/JoaquinPhoenix, who played the adult Cash, said it was very hard to film scenes that dealt with this, because of [[Creator/RiverPhoenix his own brother's]] death years earlier.* In the movie ''Film/{{Push}}'', Creator/DakotaFanning plays a girl with psychic precognitive powers. What makes this particularly funny is Ms. Fanning's apparent extreme intelligence which has led to some jokes about her having actual "powers".* The famous Marseillaise scene in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' features a close up of a woman crying while singing. The film was produced during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Many of the actors, including that woman, were forced to flee Europe due to the German invasion. The emotion in that scene was not faked.* In ''[[Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes Dr. Phibes Rises Again]]'', Creator/VincentPrice and Robert Quarry play antagonists. According to insiders, the enmity onscreen was not fake: this was Price's last film for API, as he was being pushed aside for a younger actor. His replacement? Robert Quarry.* The interest in masked characters (i.e. Film/{{V|ForVendetta}}, [[Film/SpeedRacer Racer X]]) in the Wachowskis' films might have something to do with their reclusiveness and Lana having to live most of her life as Larry (and Lana's sister Lilly having to go through the same thing).** When they returned to the public with ''Film/CloudAtlas'', with its actors and actresses playing different genders and races, you can see it as a parallel to Lana's life.* The classic 1947 film ''Film/GentlemansAgreement'' has a scene of a meeting where the merits of having the hero pose as a Jewish man to learn first-hand about antisemitism is discussed with senior staff of the magazine. Much of the dialog came directly from meetings of senior executives of Fox Studios discussing the merits of adapting the novel into a film. (It was both a commercial and critical hit and likely was partly the inspiration for John Howard Griffin to pose as a black man in real life in 1959 to learn about racism again blacks, which was the basis of the book and film BlackLikeMe.)* In ''Film/TheKidsAreAllRight'', Creator/MarkRuffalo incorporated many of his younger brother's personality traits into his performance. His brother had been shot to death in an unsolved homicide a few years prior, and Ruffalo has stated he regarded the character as a way to pay tribute to his brother.* The violent murder of Macduff's wife and children in Creator/RomanPolanski's 1971 film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' is somewhat difficult to watch due to this trope, as Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate was violently murdered along with four others by followers of the UsefulNotes/MansonFamily.* In ''Film/ASimpleWish'', Annabel and her father have a close relationship following the death of Annabel's mother. This deeply ridiculous movie suddenly becomes a TearJerker with the reality subtext: Creator/MaraWilson, who played Annabel, was still recovering from the death of her own mother halfway through the filming of Film/{{Matilda}}. She really does adore her father, who single-handedly raised Wilson and her brothers while managing his daughter's film career, thus doing a much better job than [[WaitingForABreak Annabel's father.]]* In-universe example in ''Film/MoulinRouge''; the plot of the ShowWithinAShow mirrors the romance of Christian and Satine with the looming threat of the Duke. The Duke does not take it well when this is pointed out to him.* ''Film/AfterEarth'': Several reviewers have noted the (possibly unintentional) parallel between Cypher pushing his son Kitai to perform in a situation he is ill-prepared for, and Will Smith having his son Jaden in his pet project.* Creator/TylerPerry has discussed in several interviews that his movies are based on his RagsToRiches life story. Some examples include the prevalence of RapeAsBackstory in his movies, relating to his childhood when he was molested several times.* A major theme in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' is the concept of a second chance in the face of the mutant race's impending extinction. This could be seen as a nod to the fact that the movie was seen by some as a last-ditch effort to revitalize the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', which had been in a critical and box office tailspin since the release of ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' and ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''. * Jennifer Grey and Creator/PatrickSwayze's tense working relationship going back to ''Film/RedDawn1984'' compounded the on-screen tension during Baby's TrainingMontage in ''Film/DirtyDancing''. Baby's giggling when Johnny Castle brushes his hand down her side, touching her breast, was just Jennifer Grey's nerves getting the better of her. Swayze seems mildly annoyed on most of the takes that ended up in the film.* In ''Film/{{Ghost}}'', Creator/WhoopiGoldberg plays a PhonyPsychic who soon discovers she's actually a NotSoPhonyPsychic that actually can talk to the dead. But despite working closely with a recently-slain man, she still doubts her abilities throughout much of the movie. According to Goldberg, she was originally unsure whether she should take the part until Creator/PatrickSwayze convinced her and the producers that she'd be perfect. She ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' and [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 its sequel]] involved a notable RomanceOnTheSet, as Creator/AndrewGarfield and Creator/EmmaStone began dating at almost exactly the same time that they began playing the famous couple Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Fittingly, their onscreen chemistry was one of the most praised aspects of the movies; unlike Creator/TobeyMaguire and Creator/KirstenDunst before them, Garfield and Stone didn't need acting to convince the audience that they were in love.* In ''Film/ClerksII'', Jason Mewes returned to the iconic role of [[TheStoner Jay]] for the first time in five years, with the biggest change to his character being that he had sworn off drugs (''doing'' them, not selling them) and turned to Jesus since the events of the original ''Film/{{Clerks}}''. In reality, Mewes had been battling a heroin addiction since the mid-90's, which greatly damaged his long-time friendship with Creator/KevinSmith, and had got him sent to court-mandated rehab in 2004. When Smith agreed to let Mewes reprise his role in ''Clerks II'' in 2006, he did it on the condition that Mewes stay clean. Considering Smith had actually forced Mewes into rehab himself at least once before, and he had earlier refused to cast him in ''Film/JerseyGirl'' because of his drug problems, he understood the significance of making Jay an ex-drug user all too well.* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':** The central plot of the movie, which involves a villain's plan to turn Starfleet into a more militaristic version of itself, is largely reflective of the fandom's concerns about the once-optimistic franchise taking a DarkerAndEdgier turn and overemphasizing action and conflict at the expense of creative storytelling. Fittingly, the movie ends with [[spoiler:Kirk and company beginning their five-year exploration mission]], with Kirk giving a speech about the importance of Starfleet [[RevisitingTheRoots staying true to its founding principles of peacekeeping and discovery]].** The film can also be seen as an example of a once-good government taking increasingly dark and amoral actions in the name of protecting its citizens from a perceived outside threat, a subject that is very relevant to the post-9/11 western world.* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:** In the beginning of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Korath has no idea who Peter Quill aka "Star-Lord" is. This lack of recognition reflects the obscurity of the comic series compared to other properties from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His getting it right at the end reflects the hope that the film could raise its profile among fans. Judging by the reviews and box office totals, this wish likely came true.** ''Film/AntMan'':*** The trailers and marketing contained nods to the fact that the character is often considered a complete joke by many people, with one MissingTrailerScene in particular showing Scott asking if it's too late to change the name. In the film itself, Comicbook/TheFalcon looks like he's about to burst out laughing when Ant-Man first tells him his name. *** When Hope is given the [[Comicbook/TheWasp Wasp]] armor by Hank in TheStinger, she simply grins and says "It's about damn time." This references the fact that despite being one of the founding Avengers in the comics, the Wasp was AdaptedOut of the first two ''Avengers'' films and the MCU as a whole before that point. It also references the fact that starting with Phase 3, Marvel began more seriously addressing the complaints about the lack of [[TheSmurfettePrinciple female]] and [[MonochromeCasting and minority]] superheroes in Phases 1 and 2. ** For ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' (2012), Creator/MarkRuffalo has stated he was extremely hesitant about taking the role of Bruce Banner. He called Robert Downey Jr. for advice, who convinced him to take the part. Ruffalo ended up kicking ass as Banner/Hulk. This is amusingly similar to their characters' relationship in the movie.** Main/IronMan:*** [[Film/IronMan The original film]] is now largely famous for leading to Creator/RobertDowneyJr's [[CareerResurrection comeback]] after his widely publicized problems with substance abuse derailed his career. Appropriately, Tony Stark's struggles with alcoholism have long been a major element of the comic book's mythos, and the first movie is ultimately about Stark resolving to turn his life around after getting a second chance at life.*** The Mandarin is often considered a controversial character in a modern context, as he was a YellowPeril villain created back when Asians were considered AcceptableTargets because of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. ''Film/IronMan3'' acknowledged this and subverted it by revealing that [[spoiler: the Mandarin is actually a DecoyLeader created by the real villain, who is a white American. It turns out he literally crafted the Mandarin as an over-the-top character to act as a scapegoat for his crimes]].** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''*** Tony Stark tells Peter Parker that he's here to give him a much-needed revamp and upgrade could be seen as a nod to Marvel Studios trying to fix Sony's ''Spider-Man'' franchise after the failure of ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2''.*** Some have viewed the film's premise of the Avengers splitting into two factions going against each other as being accidentally reflective of the massive friction and tension generated by the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The USA at the time was said to have engaged in a kind of "social civil war" having been deeply polarized by its two candidates, particularly the surprising popularity and support of its [[Creator/DonaldTrump most controversial candidate and eventual winner]]. The film's tagline "United We Stand. Divided We Fall." somewhat highlighted this.* ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'', since it was shot on location in South Central L.A., had to deal with many of the same problems with gangs and crime that the movie's characters had to deal with. The dialogue had to be dubbed over in many parts due to gunshots and helicopters in the distance. There were threats of fights between the extras, and in one instance a filming location had to be changed because of threats from a member of the Bloods. The scene in question contained Doughboy (Ice Cube), who is heavily implied to be a Crip, shooting someone who is heavily implied to be a Blood. The real life gang member claimed that he was not responsible if someone actually shot Ice Cube for portraying their gang negatively.* ''Film/{{Help}}'': When Music/TheBeatles try to convince [[Music/RingoStarr Ringo]] [[ComedicSociopathy to let them cut off his finger]] in order to get [[ClingyMacGuffin the cult ring]] off, [[Music/PaulMcCartney Paul]] says to Ringo "Well, you didn't miss your tonsils, did you?", referencing the fact that Ringo had gotten a tonsillectomy earlier that year.* ''Literature/ExitToEden'': Both Dana Delany and her character, Mistress Lisa have a butt fetish. In an interview, Dana Delany was asked what's her favorite male body part and her answer was "I love butts. There's nothing better than a good butt.". During [[KinkySpanking Citizen Elliot's bondage scene]] Mistress Lisa says:-->'''Mistress Lisa:''' I like butts. Men's beautiful behinds. You know what I like to do to gorgeous butts? I like to squeeze them, pinch them and caress them.* ''Film/{{Fatso}}'' stars Creator/DomDeLuise as [[TheDanza Dominick DiNapoli]] a man who is struggling with his weight. The story is a not-at-all disguised take on [=DeLuise=]'s own struggle with obesity.* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'': Because Creator/PaulWalker, who played Brian O'Conner, died during production of ''Fast and Furious 7'', the film had to be rewritten to accommodate it. The film's tagline is "One Last Ride", there's a scene at [[spoiler:Han's]] funeral where the normally lighthearted Roman grimly tells Brian he can't take any more funerals, and there's also the recurring subplot about how Brian can't afford to go haring off around the world and risking his life when he has a family to take care of.* At some point during or before production of ''Bobby'', Creator/LindsayLohan received word that one of her closest friends had passed away. Lohan used her grief over that event to fuel her during the more emotional scenes in the film.* ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'': Besides [[MythologyGag the franchise's classic catchphrases]], one of the T-800's new {{Catch Phrase}}s was "Old, but not obsolete", referring to critics who felt that Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger had become too old to play the Terminator anymore.* In the 1996 version of ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor'', Klump says, "Buddy's who I thought the whole world wanted me to be." This is almost certainly a reference to Eddie Murphy's own movie career. Series/SiskelAndEbert even noted this in their review.* In ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'', Colossus's attempts to have Deadpool join the X-Men and act like a real hero, and Deadpool having none of it, can be seen as reflecting the real-life push towards making a more standard-fare, family-friendly superhero movie, and the filmmakers' (especially Ryan Reynolds) utter refusal to do so by keeping the movie as trashy and R-rated as the character deserves.* The titular rumor of ''Rumor Has It'', about how Sarah's parents were the inspiration for the movie ''Film/TheGraduate'', stems from a real-life rumor that the original novel was inspired by an actual family.* In the film ''John Doe: Vigilante'', the titular character is a SerialKiller spending his nights killing child molesters/abusers, rapists, and abusive husbands/boyfriends. His final victim is revealed to be the man who murdered his wife and daughter. In an interview, John Doe's portrayer Creator/JamieBamber admitted that it was very easy to imagine the grief and rage that this man was feeling, as he himself is the HappilyMarried father of three girls and simultaneously very hard to play the scenes for that very same reason.* Both Creator/DustinHoffman and Creator/MerylStreep were dealing with personal losses during the filming of ''Film/KramerVsKramer''--Streep with the death of her partner, Hoffman with a divorce--infusing the scenes of their crumbling marriage and subsequent custody battle with a painful realism.* ''Film/{{Birdman}}'' is a clear analogy for Creator/MichaelKeaton[='s=] struggles with escaping his IAmNotSpock status as the man who played ComicBook/{{Batman}} in the [[Film/{{Batman}} first]] [[Film/BatmanReturns two]] entries in the 1989 film series. The premise itself, in which an actor attempts to escape his typecasting as the titular ShowWithinAShow superhero by taking the lead in a play, is an almost note-for-note calling card for Keaton's attempts at escaping the mantle of the Caped Crusader.* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDvymblSdh4#t=51m09s this scene]] in ''Picasso Trigger'', Taryn's shown flying a Cessna 172P Skyhawk. Her actress, Hope Marie Carlton is a licensed pilot in RealLife.* In ''Film/InsideLlewynDavis'', Creator/OscarIsaac and Creator/AdamDriver play a pair of struggling folk singers who finally get their shot at fame when they're invited to sing backup on a song that ends up becoming a huge radio hit. The movie was released in 2013, when Isaac and Driver were both struggling, mostly-obscure character actors with only a few major credits to their names--but just a few months after it was released in the United States, they actually ''did'' get their shot at fame when they were cast as Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'', the long-awaited seventh ''Star Wars'' movie. In an amusing coincidence, the song that gives them their shot at the big-time is "Please, Mr. Kennedy", [[HilariousInHindsight a ballad about a man being launched into outer space]].* An unusual case of deliberate [[InvokedTrope invocation]] by the screenwriters of ''Film/TheApartment'': they would keep track of the actors' real-life experiences and try to integrate them into the plot. That's how the whole gin rummy subplot found its way to the screen (Creator/ShirleyMacLaine was learning the game at the time). And some offscreen lines of actors discussing their own private lives were also featured in the film, making it a case of ''offscreen'' ThrowItIn. [[http://nitratediva.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/shirley-maclaine-the-apartment-tcmff/ Here is more]].* Creator/MichaelDouglas began shooting ''Film/WallStreetMoneyNeverSleeps'' shortly after his son Cameron was sent to prison on drug-dealing charges, the latest installment in his long battle with addiction. Six years earlier his half-brother Eric had also died of an overdose. Gekko's emotions as he recalls his own ultimately futile efforts to prevent his son's overdose are thus very real for Douglas.* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'':** A key part of the ComicBook/WonderWoman mythos is that Princess Diana is an Amazon, a member of a legendary race of all-female warriors who defy traditional gender roles to become one of the most elite groups of soldiers on Earth. When she finally got her own big-budget Hollywood movie [[DevelopmentHell after years of failed attempts]], Israeli actress Creator/GalGadot was chosen to play her. Israel is, rather famously, one of the only countries in the world that not only ''allows'' women to serve in the military (up to and including in combat), but actually ''requires'' it. Gadot is no exception: she served in the Israeli Defense Forces for two years, making her the first Wonder Woman actress who's actually a veteran herself.** The film was the first resounding success for the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse, which had long lingered behind the long-running Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in both critical reception and box-office returns. It also seems to have been made (in part) as a SpiritualAntithesis to Marvel's film ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', another war-themed period piece about the origin of a superhero with a patriotic costume. Fittingly, much of the movie involves Diana trying to escape the shadow of [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a handsome American soldier named "Steve", played by an actor named "Chris"]]. The movie even ends with [[spoiler: "Steve" pulling a HeroicSacrifice to stop a loaded plane from destroying the world's major cities]].* ''Film/AChristmasCarolGoesWrong'' has an in-universe example. Once the footage of Dennis's birthday party is aired and the entire cast is angry at one another, especially Chris, he uses Scrooge's redemption scene to apologize and make amends with his friends in real life as well as the characters.* For ''Film/TheManWhoInventedChristmas'', 87-year-old Christopher Plummer is the oldest actor to ever play Scrooge onscreen, making Scrooge begging to do something good before he dies hit even harder. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Johnny's search for his father in ''Literature/APrayerForOwenMeany'' mirrors John Irving's search for his own father.* When mystery author Howard Engel suffered a stroke that left him with ''alexia sine agraphia'' (a neurological condition where he is unable to read words while retaining the ability to write), he decided to give his protagonist the same condition in the following novels.* Creator/StephenKing:** He wrote in his accident with a hit-and-run driver into ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series, where his AuthorAvatar suffers the same accident.** Heck, Stephen King's work in general is one giant Reality Subtext. He's a teacher who used to work at an industrial laundry? [[Literature/{{Carrie}} His first novel]] deals with school life with a protagonist whose mother works at an industrial laundry. He makes it big as a writer? ''Literature/SalemsLot'' has a writer protagonist (as do many of his other stories) and ''Literature/TheShining'' has a teacher-turned-writer protagonist. He lives in Maine? His stories take place in Maine. He moves to Colorado? His stories take place in Colorado. He becomes an alcoholic and addicted to different meds? His stories start featuring metaphors for addiction or outright addiction. Seriously, just track the recurring features in his work and you've basically written a biography for him.** Specifically, he openly admits to being coked out of his mind while writing ''Literature/TheTommyknockers''. Said story features a group of people who find a deadly object which grants them great amounts of energy and a superficial kind of creativity, and then kills them with a slow wasting disease. Nose bleeds feature prominently. In perhaps the most on-the-nose example, the first invention created under the influence of the alien object is a psychic typewriter that effortlessly translates broad story ideas into beautifully written manuscripts.* The Dementors in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' are the personified result of Rowling's own battle with depression. She's also mentioned several times that her mother's death significantly affected her writing, especially in regards to the themes of love and death in the story. One of the most haunting moments in the first book is when Harry finds the Mirror of Erised, which shows him his long-dead parents, looking at him and smiling with pride. * Actress Clara Salaman wrote her novel ''Shame on You'' based on her own experiences of growing up in a religious cult, reported by some sources to be the St James School of The School Of Economic Science.* In the Kay Scarpetta series of novels by Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta's niece Lucy is a lesbian who has several different relationships with women while working with the FBI. The RealitySubtext is that Cornwell herself was having an affair with a married female FBI agent, and the affair came to light when the agent's former husband tried to murder her. Lucy also suffers from anorexia nervosa, something Cornwell has also struggled with. An incident in ''The Body Farm'' where Lucy is in a drunk car crash in Scarpetta's Mercedes was also based on something that happened to Cornwell.* Creator/TamoraPierce stated at a note at the end of the final book in the ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'' series, ''Lady Knight'' that the [[spoiler:destruction of Haven]] ''had'' been planned beforehand, living in New York City on 9/11 left an indelible mark on her writing. Particularly because she had, by coincidence, been about to write that part when it happened, and it was what she came back to when she was able to write again.* Cecelia Galante's ''The Patron Saint of Butterflies'', about a group of kids who grow up in an abusive Christian cult, is based on Cecilia's own experiences growing up in a cult. In fact, when her father read it he thought she was trying to insult him.* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the scenes of ultraviolence were written based on Burgess' memories of his wife's rape. Apparently, he was pretty consistently drunk during this period, and always regretted that the book became most remembered for the violence.* A running theme in Creator/MarianKeyes's novels is that some of her characters will suffer from depression, suicidal tendencies, or alcoholism. Marian herself has struggled with depression and alcoholism her whole life and after a suicide attempt and going sober, turned to writing to cope. After her most recent bout of depression, she wove her experience into Helen Walsh's story in ''The Mystery of Mercy Close''.* Creator/JRRTolkien wrote ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII while his sons were serving in the British military, which accounts for the [[DarkerAndEdgier significantly darker tone]]. Although Tolkien was ''far'' more deeply influenced by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in which he fought himself, and about which he later pointed out, "By 1918 all but one of my closest friends were dead." The discovery of the ApocalypticLog in Moria marks a point where Tolkien stopped writing for a good while.* There's a throwaway line in ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' where Petyr Baelish expresses surprise at how quickly the new regime is dissolving into chaos, as he'd based his plans on the expectation that he'd have four or five peaceful years to consolidate power in his new position. This is a sly reference to the fact that Creator/GeorgeRRMartin had initially wanted to put a five year TimeSkip between the novels, but due to [[FourLinesAllWaiting all the disparate plot threads]] he couldn't make it work.* Creator/VCAndrews was confined to mostly bed or a wheelchair for most of her adult life due to various factors (Including crippling arthritis). This is possibly reflected in ''Literature/SeedsOfYesterday'' when [[spoiler:Jory]] is crippled after an accident during a ballet performance and is confined to a wheelchair as well. And, while she said that none her writings were in anyway autobiographical, according to an interview in ''[[http://www.completevca.com/art_fear.shtml Faces of Fear]]'', she stated that her grandfather was a religious fanatic that forced Andrews' family to go to his church, which Andrews later saw in a negative light. In turn, this seemed to have influenced the use of sinister religious characters in her work, notably Malcolm and Olivia Foxworth in the Dollanganger series.* ''Broken Gate'' has a rather upsetting case of this that the author candidly reveals in a note at the end of the final chapter, where she mentions [[spoiler: and her relatives (a family of nine, the which included an older brother) once lived together in her home, where, after some time of living stably and accommodating, it turned turned into something of an abusive situation, which took a ''terrible'' toll on her mental health (to the point where she implies that she's contemplated suicide). Eventually, she got him out of her home but she had to resort to using a restraining order.]] She goes onto mention how she didn't want to resort to that and wishes things could have been different and how she based the story and characters off of her own experiences.* According to the author, the "Sometimes, its more than the person that dies" line in ''Turning the Hands of Time, Part I'' of the ''Literature/MadgieWhatDidYouDo'' series came from the fact that the story was written either some time around or after her maternal grandmother had passed and that, afterwards, she found it hard to remember her since, recalling certain things about her briefly and vaguely.* Creator/StevenErikson's father passed away shortly before he began writing ''Literature/TollTheHounds''. The book deals with themes of depression and death to a much larger degree than the others and Erikson even dedicated it to his father's memory.* ''Literature/AftermathEmpiresEnd'' contains a brief appearance from Jar Jar Binks, who is now a street performer and said be beloved by children but hated by adults. This is of course a nod to the fact that he was originally a KidAppealCharacter utterly ''despised'' by the majority of the franchise's adult fanbase.* ''{{Literature/Tigana}}'': After Devin kills a man for the first time, he is musing about deaths, and to what extent they do or do not define the lives that preceded them. He wonders if Stevan had lived and died so that Brandin might cause the destruction of Tigana. In a philosophical sense, probably not, but in a literary sense... yes--as a character, Stevan ''did'' exist for that purpose.-->''It was difficult to sort out though. Had Stevan of Ygrath lived and died so that his father’s grief might work the destruction of a small province and its people and their memories? Had Prince Valentin di Tigana been born only to swing the killing blade that caused this to happen?''[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* Piper Halliwell was pregnant twice throughout the run of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', the first time just the character, the second time both character and actress. Because the actress knew more about being pregnant and having children, Piper's second pregnancy was a lot more realistic than her first: she wasn't on her feet as much, she didn't fight any demons, she talked about breastfeeding and maternity more, and Creator/HollyMarieCombs was noticeably more maternal with her onscreen children.* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer}} The Ultimate Computer]]", William Marshall stars as Dr. Richard Daystrom, a prideful and ultimately fanatical computer designer. His eventual SanitySlippage carries a haunting subtext: Daystrom delivers a heartbreaking monologue about how he's been mocked and ridiculed and underestimated by people who did not understand him or his vision. In real life, Marshall was a [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra classically trained actor]] and opera singer who likely suffered similar indignities and a shortage of opportunities because he was African-American.** Q's [[JokerJury unwashed kangaroo court]] in TNG's finale "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings}} All Good Things...]]", among other things, can be interpreted as a reflection of [[StrawFan heckling Trekkies]] who doubted whether TNG could live up to TOS' legacy, or thought TNG had gotten stale by this time.--->'''Q:''' The trial never ended, Captain. We never reached a verdict, but now we have. You're guilty.\\'''Picard:''' Guilty of what?\\'''Q:''' Of being [[FollowUpFailure inferior.]] Seven years ago, I said we'd be watching you, and we have been -- hoping that your ape-like race would demonstrate ''some'' growth, give ''some'' indication that your minds had room for expansion. But what have we seen instead? You worrying about Commander Riker's career, listening to Counselor Troi's pedantic psychobabble, indulging Data in his witless exploration of humanity... Time may be infinite, Captain, but our patience is not.** On TNG, Sarek's declining health and eventual death seemed to mirror those of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry. To whit, "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E7Unification1}} Unification, Part 1]]", in which Sarek died, was dedicated to Roddenberry, who had died a couple weeks earlier.** Riker's existential crisis throughout "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds}} The Best of Both Worlds]]" paralleled producer/writer Michael Piller's own crisis, as he pondered whether he should stay with TNG or move on to new opportunities. Riker's statements about Commander Shelby mirror Piller's feelings about younger writers like Ronald D. Moore. Riker and Guinan's conversation about Riker becoming his own man and "letting go" of Captain Picard in order to beat him could almost be about the show's struggle to find its own identity [[ToughActToFollow in the long shadow of the original series]].** Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar in the first season of TNG, felt she was underused and asked to be let go abruptly. They managed to squeeze her death into "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil}} Skin of Evil]]", but she was to film "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis}} Symbiosis]]", which was going to air first. In the final moments of the last episode she filmed you can see her waving to the camera.** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise}} Yesterday's Enterprise]]", Yar's performance is just dripping with meta commentary. The timeline is accidentally changed decades ago and suddenly Tasha is still alive on the ship (among other [[ForWantOfANail disagreeable changes]]). Tasha discovers that in the original timeline she died a "[[DroppedABridgeOnHim senseless death, one without meaning]]" (fans had complained ever since it happened that valiant character deserved better than a {{Redshirt}} exit.)** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' got in a few great lines in its fifth season when Nana Visitor (Major Kira) was pregnant with Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir)'s child. Since Kira was the show's female lead, this would have been hard to hide, so the writers resorted to a plot twist: Keiko O'Brien was pregnant, and her baby had to be ''transplanted into Kira'' to save its life after an accident, and then (because of Kira's biology) couldn't be taken back out before the due date. In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E01ApocalypseRising}} Apocalypse Rising]]", Kira is talking with Dr. Bashir, she gets off the line "this [pregnancy] is all '''''YOUR''''' fault." The best part was probably in the episode "The Begotten", where Bashir finally delivers the little snot. Visitor gets the line "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Common enough in media, where the woman in labor shouts at the father.** In another ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E05SecondSkin}} Second Skin]]", Kira is abducted by the Obsidian Order and surgically altered to look like a Cardassian. Kira is visibly horrified by the transformation and becomes increasingly distressed through the episode. Nana Visitor is severely claustrophobic and found the Cardassian makeup incredibly uncomfortable, eventually ripping it off her face when a take took too long.** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' made a few guarded allusions to behind-the-scenes production. "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E22Muse}} Muse]]" is basically a plea for understanding from the writers of this oft-criticized series, explaining how they're pulled between the desire to create meaningful works of art, the need to satisfy those [[ExecutiveMeddling paying their wages]], and the demands of the audience for more "action" and "romance", told via a dirt-poor playright on a primitive warlike world who's trying to write a play based on ''Voyager''[='s=] logs. The "executives" (or nobles) in question will [[YouHaveFailedMe have the playwright's head]] if he doesn't deliver.** The "Equinox" two-parter seem to be suggesting ‘this is how awful it could have been if we had taken a violent route and not produced the show we have -- a complete antithesis of Gene Roddenberry’s ideals.' Ron D. Moore, who resigned from the show before the second part aired, got the last word with ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', which is more interested in dealing honestly with the problems faced by the ''Equinox''.** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' was greatly impacted by 9/11. Most of the cast and crew had friends, colleagues or relatives who perished in the attack. As a consequence, ''Enterprise'' Seasons 2-4 (and to a large degree the films, which will ''never'' wholeheartedly embrace the pacifist and multicultural message of Roddenberry's time) was a show defined by the war on terror. Even before the terrorist attacks, it seemed like the stories were consciously girding themselves for the conservative [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush]] presidency. The cast was mostly white Americans. The Captain was not a scientist or a diplomat, but a ruggedly all-American test pilot.** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E20CostOfLiving}} Cost of Living]]", Counselor Troi's mother Lwaxana reveals that she's suddenly marrying again. Creator/MajelBarrett (Lwaxana) had just lost her husband, ''Franchise/StarTrek'' creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry, several months earlier, adding another layer to Lwaxana pondering marriage again.** In the ''Deep Space Nine" GrandFinale, "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E25E26WhatYouLeaveBehind}} What You Leave Behind]]", the scene where Quark and Vic play Go Fish because there's nothing else to do was the last scene ever filmed for [=DS9=]. So, there actually was nothing left to do on the show. * In ''Series/TheWestWing'', Knowing that John Spencer (Leo [=McGarry=]), had [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim died]] in real life, makes the characters' reactions (especially those of Creator/KristinChenoweth) all the more poignant.* After six series in six years, ''Series/RedDwarf'' took a three-year hiatus between 1994 and 1996 as Craig Charles (Lister) had been arrested, and then cleared, of rape. Co-creator Rob Grant also left for undisclosed reasons. Only two more series (16 episodes) have been made since then, though a recent set of specials suggests the franchise is not quite dead, though certainly its halt at the top of its momentum did not help.* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': A month after actor Creator/NeilPatrickHarris came out as gay, the show introduced Barney's gay brother (played by Creator/WayneBrady), who makes a lifestyle choice with which Barney initially disagrees. Said lifestyle choice being getting married instead of living the life of promiscuity that Barney favors.** The show also hid the pregnancies of Cobie Smulders and Creator/AlysonHannigan using large, baggy shirts, but towards the end of the season, Hannigan was too big to hide and needed to go on maternity leave, so the writers created a joke that offended Hannigan's character Lily so much that she wouldn't speak to the rest of the group for a month.*** This also led to a line in the next season premiere when Marshall asks Robin and Lily if they have lost weight to distract them from a previous comment he had made. Both women's babies had been born during the summer hiatus.** However, during a later season, several months after Lily became pregnant, Alyson Hannigan announced she was pregnant again.** The part in "Vesuvius" where Marshall gets mad about a silly scene where his film counterpart ("Narshall") eats a cake is based on an interview where Creator/JasonSegel had criticized the writing on the show. Specifically, he used a hypothetical joke about Marshall eating a cake and then lying about it as an example of how [[StrictlyFormula formulaic]] the writing on the show had become. The scene in "Vesuvius" was basically the writers having some fun and throwing a minor TakeThat at Segel.* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'': Actor Isaiah Washington (Preston Burke) was canned from the show at the end of the season 3, causing his character's romantic storyline with Sandra Oh's Christina Yang to end rather abruptly, with her stood up at the altar and going to his apartment to find out he'd cleaned house and left. Also, the sudden disappearance of Dr. Erica Hahn was due to the unexplainable firing of actress Brooke Smith.** Season 6 has had to do quite a bit of covering up -- [[spoiler:George was killed in a bus accident when T.R. Knight wished to leave the show]], Katherine Heigl was written out for some episodes in order to shoot a movie and spend time with her recently-adopted baby, and Meredith had a storyline that required her to be bedridden to cover up Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy.*** And the maternity leave of Creator/JessicaCapshaw (Arizona) led to a hugely important arc: [[spoiler:Arizona leaves for Africa, she and Callie break up, Callie sleeps with Mark and gets pregnant, Arizona returns and they reunite and decide to raise the baby all together, Arizona ends up proposing and Callie says yes immediately after a near-fatal car accident.]] A rather extreme example of RealLifeWritesThePlot.* Two subtexts for the price of one on the sixth season premiere of ''Series/{{Reba}}'': First, Melissa Peterman's weight loss is written into the script, as Barbara Jean's been seeing a personal trainer. Second, the first (and only) line for Kyra in the episode is "I just went out to get something to eat!" The line references actress Scarlett Pomers' battle with anorexia (and explains away her absence for the last quarter of the fifth season).* Malcolm's family from ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' ended up with another child after actress Jane Kaczmareck became pregnant in real life.* [[OlderThanTheyThink Fifty years prior]], ''Series/ILoveLucy'' Little Ricky became a character as the result of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball not wanting to trick-shoot the show to hide the latter's pregnancy.** Several episodes during this time were {{Whole Episode Flashback}}s - with Ricky et. al. recalling some wacky hi-jinks. They were filmed while Lucy was still able to appear, but production intended them to air during her downtime after the birth.* Sarah Shahi of the series ''Series/{{Life}}'' is half-Iranian and speaks Farsi in real life. The episode "A Civil War" revealed that her character, Dani Reese, has an Iranian mother and can speak Farsi.** Also, during production on the last season, she became pregnant, which resulted in the last five episodes being rewritten so her character would be recruited for an FBI joint task force and only able to communicate with the main character by phone, requiring the casting of Gabrielle Union as a replacement partner.** Her ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' character, Samin Shaw, also has an Iranian mother (no word on if she speaks Farsi yet though). Sarah was also pregnant during the forth season of the show, leading to her character being [[spoiler:apparently killed off, but actually being held by Samaritan operatives.]]* ''Series/DoctorWho'':** One of the show's most famous story devices, regeneration - in which the Doctor and other Time Lords transform into completely new people when injured or near death - was created expressly [[TheNthDoctor to explain the change in actors]] from Creator/WilliamHartnell, who was ill, to Creator/PatrickTroughton.*** Hartnell's illness also affected his appearance in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]]" 7 years later, as it made him unable to join Troughton and Creator/JonPertwee's Doctors on the same stage. This was written into the story as the First Doctor being "trapped in a time eddy" and only being able to communicate with his successors through a viewscreen in the TARDIS. On top of that, it wasn't just his last appearance as the First Doctor but his last acting appearance ''ever''.*** Similarly, Creator/TomBaker's refusal to appear in "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" was explained away by having the Fourth Doctor ([[FakeShemp represented by archival footage]]) also get trapped in a time eddy.** During the production of the Second Doctor serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]", Frazer Hines (Jamie) contracted chicken pox. This resulted in a last-minute rewrite of the serial, which allowed another actor (Hamish Wilson) to play Jamie's part for episode 2 of the serial.** In 1970, ''Doctor Who'' made the switch from black and white to colour. At the same time, the production team came up with a StoryArc where the Doctor gets exiled to Earth in the 1970s, which allowed them to save the money that would ordinarily get spent on more exotic settings. The producers considered having him face off [[MonsterOfTheWeek a number of alien invasions]]. However, it was felt the sheer number of invasions would push WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief too far, and so the Master was introduced as a recurring villain. Furthermore, the Master was originally slated to die saving the Doctor's life. Instead, Roger Delgado (the Master) died in a tragic car accident. Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor) left the show partly due to this and the Master got new life later, played by other actors. These events make [[spoiler:certain events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime the Tenth Doctor's finale]]]] a fourth-wall-straddling [[BecauseDestinySaysSo date with destiny]].** Much as the Fourth Doctor enjoys fighting the robot in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot Robot]]", he is clearly bored out of his mind with having to be in UNIT, snoozing with his hat over his eyes or talking over everyone else during the exposition scenes and even having a mini-meltdown at the end about how he refuses to go on like this. The creators were getting sick of how [[ArcFatigue UNIT limited the space-time travel premise of the show]], and the Doctor's boredom is a metaphor for their own boredom and a plea to [[RevisitingTheRoots get the audience back into space again]].** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld the second episode of the new series]], Rose Tyler rants at the "bitchy trampoline" Cassandra that "she'd rather die" than have any of the cosmetic modifications Cassandra suggests. The very powerful subtext at work here is that Creator/BilliePiper had ''anorexia'' years earlier.** A mild case, but it seems very likely that the Tenth Doctor's last line before he regenerates into [[Creator/MattSmith his eleventh incarnation]] is as much his actor speaking as he is, as said actor, Creator/DavidTennant, got into acting to [[PromotedFanboy play the Doctor]] and, more or less, was considered one of the best Doctors ever. The line?--->'''The Doctor:''' I don't want to go.** The short special [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CiNSTimeCrash "Time Crash"]] showed the Tenth Doctor meeting the Fifth and practically gushing over the earlier incarnation. That's because Creator/DavidTennant grew up on the Fifth's serials, considers the Fifth his favorite Doctor, and cites Creator/PeterDavison as the reason he wanted to become an actor and eventually play the Doctor. That's Tennant's fanboying you see throughout the whole thing.** Not just Tennant's; Creator/StevenMoffat, who wrote it, is also an unabashed Davison fanboy.** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "Victory of the Daleks"]], for the first time, justifies the change in default Dalek props in-universe: [[spoiler:Three Daleks who have miraculously survived the Dalek genocide of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] (and are thus represented by the Creator/RussellTDavies props) create a new Dalek breed, technicolor, taller and more powerful than them. The old Daleks declare their unworthiness in comparison to the new ones and are promptly disintegrated by them.]] The actual production reason for the switch is that the RTD Dalek props were built so that they could go eyestalk-to-eye with Creator/BilliePiper (Rose), so the Creator/StevenMoffat props were conversely made to match the much taller Creator/KarenGillan (Amy).** When Creator/MatthewWaterhouse was 16, his older brother committed suicide, just two years before Matthew got the part of Adric. What happens in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Adric's introductory story?]] His older brother is yanked out of his grasp to his death.** Creator/MattSmith cut his hair for ''Film/HowToCatchAMonster''. To explain his in-character entrance as the Doctor at the 2013 ''Doctor Who'' Prom not long after filming of that movie wrapped, prefilmed footage clearly filmed before production of ''How to Catch a Monster'' began depicted the Doctor (and Clara) getting into the Royal Albert Hall by bodyswapping with people present on the stage; the process caused the Doctor to inherit his target's short hair when he appeared on stage.** "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" featured a forgotten incarnation of the Doctor who had fought in the Time War, serving as a metaphor for the Wilderness Years and the many diverging, convoluted arms of the ExpandedUniverse that took over the Doctor's 'life' at that time.** Smith's final episode, [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor "The Time of the Doctor"]], has the Eleventh Doctor suffer a leg injury that leads to him either limping or using a cane for the remainder of the story. This is a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Smith had hurt his leg in real life just prior to the start of filming.** Also in his last episode, Smith's baldness was written into the story, allowing him to conceal a spare TARDIS key under his wig. In RealLife, he'd shaved his head for a film role; in-Whoniverse, Clara correctly deduces that Eleven cut off his hair on a whim because he was bored.** Eleven's final lines, right before he regenerates could easily be interpreted as Matt Smith saying the lines in regards to his tenure as The Doctor:--->'''Eleventh Doctor/Matt Smith:''' I will always remember when The Doctor was me.** The subsequent season premier, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]], contains a large amount of commentary about Creator/PeterCapaldi, who is currently the oldest actor to portray the Doctor in the revived series. Clara acts as a stand-in for the audience and questions the legitimacy of the new, physically aged Doctor, which parallels the fervor in the fanbase about such an old actor playing the character after the YoungerAndHipper precedent that was set with Creator/ChristopherEccleston, Creator/DavidTennant, and Creator/MattSmith. ** [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon A Time"]] ends with Twelve making a speech to his successor as the Doctor essentially saying "it is your time now, good luck". It is very easy to see this as Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat wishing their successors (Creator/JodieWhittaker and Creator/ChrisChibnall) all the best.** There are a lot of examples to do with Creator/TomBaker, as he was the most blatant example of MetaCasting yet seen on the whole show, and Creator/RobertHolmes, who edited much of his era, thought he was an interesting person enough that he deliberately wrote [[ActorSharedBackground elements inspired by Baker's life into the Doctor's backstory]], or would use the show to criticise aspects of Baker's behaviour.*** One of the Fourth Doctor's most overwhelmingly common villain templates was religious fanatics or ritual-obsessed villains, usually in robes and using Catholic-inflected iconography. He had spent his teens and the beginning of his 20s as a monk in an extremely repressive environment and still carried emotional damage from this, and enjoyed [[CreatorBreakdown the opportunity to work out his issues by shouting at people in cassocks]], which the writers were happy to give him. In particular, Holmes based Time Lord society on the organisational style of the Catholic Church.*** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]"'s plot kicks off when a religious fanatic looks up to make eye contact with the Doctor and becomes infatuated with his face. This is peculiarly similar to a formative experience Tom Baker recounts in his biography, where, as a monk forbidden to look at faces, he'd accidentally glanced up to see another novice and become infatuated with his face.*** Creator/RobertHolmes wrote "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]" at a time when Baker's mental health was starting to fail him, and his ego and drinking habit was beginning to cause production issues and public embarrassment. The story portrays the Doctor as very selfish and aloof, paying little attention to Leela and trying to ditch her four times (as Baker hated the character and had been pushing for her to be written out), contains a setpiece where the Doctor intentionally upstages another actor on a stage as a mindgame (Baker often hogged scenes and stepped on lines to abuse actors he disliked), and also portrays the Doctor as having a secret alcohol stash.*** The Fourth Doctor audio drama "The Justice of Jalxar" contains a scene where the Doctor has to protect a group of innocents by confessing to all the crimes he has committed to a homicidal justice robot, so it would pursue him rather than the ordinary people. His confession is structured like a Catholic confession and involves him begging "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa", something absurdly uncomfortable to listeners aware that Creator/TomBaker had spent years as a Catholic monk not allowed to look at people's faces, forbidden to laugh, repeatedly made to repeat that he was worthless and told that if he ever left he would go mad outside, leaving him with lifelong emotional damage.* Combining Reality Subtext and {{Fanon}}, many ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' fans believe that Trini, the original Yellow Ranger, is dead, since her actress, Thuy Trang, died in a car accident. Her death has never been mentioned on-screen, but since ''Series/PowerRangers'' shows are usually independent of each other, this is not surprising. However, this one's purely {{Fanon}}. {{Reunion Show}}s involving characters who knew her have never mentioned anything bad having happened to her.** In ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder,'' Creator/JasonDavidFrank - playing veteran ranger and mentor Tommy - had prior commitments in the USA in the middle of filming (which takes place in New Zealand), and so the producers arranged to have Tommy first trapped in amber, then stuck in his Ranger suit, and then finally invisible (so that Frank could provide voice-overs without having to be present on set).** ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'': Kendrix, the Pink Galaxy Ranger, makes a HeroicSacrifice in a DyingMomentOfAwesome near the end of the teamup with the Space Rangers. Her actress had to leave the show to undergo leukemia treatments. She was written out in this manner so that if the treatments were unsuccessful (as is all too often the case) people would have a grand heroic deed to remember her by. Fortunately, the treatments worked, and as a result Kendrix was revived at the end.* A ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode shows Dick Van Dyke as the character of Mark Sloan watching home movie footage of himself playing 'cowboys' with his son Steve (played by real life son Barry). This is in fact real footage of Dick Van Dyke presumably playing 'cowboys' with a toddler age Barry though it could conceivably be another family member.* A.J. Langer came down with the chicken pox during filming of the ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' episode "Life of Brian" (which has nothing to do with [[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian the Monty Python film]]). This resulted not only in her very limited screen time in that episode, but also in all of the makeup having to be thrown out.* For the first three or four seasons of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', the character of Marcy was married to a materialistic banker named Steve Rhoades, played by David Garrison. When Garrison grew tired of television and did not want to continue the series, he and the producers mutually agreed to write off his character. Over the course of several episodes, Steve would be phased out of the show, culminating in his going to jail and Marcy's divorcing him. Garrison would, however, return to play the role of Steve several times during the rest of the show's run.** Another example came from Katey Segal's first pregnancy. The writers fully embraced it as material for that season, and had Peg in-show getting pregnant as well. Unfortunately, this plan did not materialize as perfectly as the writers hoped. Right before the predetermined birth, Katey suffered a miscarriage. This forced the writers to give the season an AllJustADream ending because having an infant on-set would be traumatic for Segal. Fans were initially displeased, but after the writers explained the tragic situation behind the season finale, they cooled down and expressed their condolences to Segal. Even though the actress got pregnant again before ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' ended, the previous experience scared them away from creating a tie-in plot, and instead opted for a HideYourPregnancy approach instead.* There's a ''lot'' of this in ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' with General Melchett, played by StraightGay actor Creator/StephenFry. There's his habit of addressing Captain Kevin Darling as just "Darling" -- and then there's "[[Recap/BlackadderS4E3MajorStar Major Star]]", in which he falls for Hugh Laurie in drag yet finds "Bob" (a female passing for male) in "drag" utterly repulsive.** In "[[Recap/BlackadderS4E5GeneralHospital General Hospital]]", Blackadder uncovers a spy by reciting the 'great universities': "Oxford, Cambridge, Hull", and observes that the spy failed to notice that only two of them were great universities. General Melchett chimes in, "Yes, Oxford's a complete dump." Melchett's actor, Creator/StephenFry, was an alumnus of Cambridge, whereas Blackadder's actor, Creator/RowanAtkinson, attended Oxford.** There's a bit of this in the ''A Bit Of Fry And Laurie'' sketch where Fry plays a British officer, Major Donaldson, and Hugh Laurie plays a Nazi officer. Fry is captured by the Nazis and is tortured to make him reveal information about the invasion of Normandy. He hasn't cracked under the torture. But as soon as he sees Hugh, he's smitten with the German officer, reveals the information he wants, and begs for a kiss. (The German says, "Well, maybe a little one.")* David Henrie (Justin Russo) and Creator/SelenaGomez (Alex Russo), who play brother and sister in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'', liked each other in RealLife (and they still probably do) and it affected their characters' relationship, as implied by the looks they gave one another while they were performing the roles and [[{{UST}} by the way they acted around each other]]. Their obvious chemistry was commented on by many fans, critics and even by their friends and families. [[{{Squick}} Much to some people's relief]] and [[FanPreferredCouple to a vast part of the fandom's dismay]] they didn't act upon their crushes.* Creator/DavidDuchovny forced production of ''Series/TheXFiles'' to move from Vancouver to Los Angeles, in part to further his wife Creator/TeaLeoni's acting career. Vancouver is rainy, forested, and has similar architecture to the Eastern US. Los Angeles mostly looks like Los Angeles. As a result, there were substantially more episodes set in the American Southwest, which LA can credibly replicate.** ''The X-Files'' first did this when Creator/GillianAnderson first became pregnant. For a good while her character Dana Scully was wearing her trenchcoat and sitting behind desks a lot more, until she was abducted by aliens and was gone for the length of Anderson's maternity leave.** Not only that, but when Scully returned she was in a coma for most of an episode. Due to complications from the pregnancy, her pallor didn't need a lot of make-up.** This had even more effect on the plot than most such cases, since it helped kick-start the show's long-term myth arc, whereas before it had only featured vague alien-related plots and unconnected events. * When Creator/PeterSellers guest starred on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', there was a brief bit where Kermit told him that he could feel free to drop his personas while backstage and be himself. Sellers' response was, "There is no me; I do not exist. There used to be a me... but I had it surgically removed." He meant it.** Sellers' claim that he existed as only what others wanted him to be was based on feeling his real self wasn't sufficiently able to make others or himself happy (and a desire to protect his privacy). In any case, his fascination with being others and never himself was what caused him to identify so much with Chance the Gardener in the novel ''Film/BeingThere'', to the point of spending much of his final years getting a film adaptation made so he could play Chance. Indeed, his family and friends have argued that of all of Peter's characters, Chance is by far the closest to who he actually was as a person.** When Creator/GeneKelly guest starred, Scooter predicted the world would end and Beauregard was certain it was true. This was the last episode to be produced (though -- at least in America -- not the last one aired).* When Jared Padalecki broke his wrist partway through filming an episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam Winchester had to break his wrist in a fight. There then follows at least one episode where Sam doesn't seem to do much while Jared deals with the pain and painkillers.** In one episode of Season Four, Sam was only onscreen for forty seconds because Jared Padalecki was busy filming ''Film/FridayThe13th2009'' remake.** In Season 10, Sam begins the first few episodes with his arm in a sling again after having dislocated his shoulder before Season 10 filming began. Jared had undergone surgery and had very clearly lost a bit of weight, but could be explained in character due to the fact that [[spoiler: Dean had literally disappeared for weeks after dying in Sam's arms. Turns out, Dean had become a demon.]] Multiple characters bring up the injury in-universe -at least once per episode for the first four episodes.* In an episode of ''Series/{{Witchblade}}'', Sara lectures the coroner about alcoholism when she spots booze in the room. In real life, Yancy Butler has had battles with alcoholism, which led to [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor the show's cancellation after the second season]].* On ''Series/SportsNight'', Robert Guillaume's real-life stroke was written into the story line as a stroke suffered by his character, executive producer Isaac Jaffee. This led to some very emotional scenes upon his return. Likewise, the on-screen portrayal of ExecutiveMeddling throughout season 2, was almost certainly Aaron Sorkin's somewhat pissy reaction to the same. The latter theme would reappear in ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip''.* In ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'', Matt Albie is constantly getting into arguments with his blonde, Christian ex-girlfriend about everything from politics to same-sex marriage to whether or not she should pose for a men's magazine. Aaron Sorkin had recent broken up with his blonde, Christian girlfriend having had many of the same conflicts with her. Critics were quite to point out that this gave Sorkin an opportunity to win all the arguments by proxy, since he was now writing both sides.* ''Series/BabylonFive'':** Vir Cotto got a lot slimmer halfway through the series, which fit with the character developing from mostly comic relief to playing a more serious role in the show. In reality, Stephen Furst had been ordered to lose weight after becoming diabetic.** Zack Allan's complaints about his ill-fitting uniform were based - in some cases word for word - on that character's actor, Jeff Conaway, complaining about his ill-fitting costume. (When he later gets a change of costume, it is a notably better fit.)** Delenn's scathing dressing-down of the Grey Council in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E10SeveredDreams Severed Dreams]]" was infused with her Croatian actress Mira Furlan's own considerable fury with the European powers who failed to help as the Balkans went to hell. The result is a bona fide CrowningMomentOfAwesome for both Delenn and Mira.** ''Babylon 5'' enjoyed that sort of thing. WordOfGod is that Mr. Garibaldi's occasional speeches in favor of the death penalty were put in because actor Jerry Doyle was a fervent supporter of capital punishment in real life. Notably, the season 3 episode [[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E04PassingThroughGethsemane "Passing Through Gethsemane"]] has a discussion between Garibaldi and Delenn on the matter that mirrors their real-life actors' viewpoints. ** There have been heavy hints dropped by J Michael Straczynski and others that the reason why Sinclair and Garibaldi have no scenes together in "War Without End", despite the characters having been good friends in the first season when Sinclair was a regular, was because of a serious falling-out between the actors.** It's [[RewatchBonus easy to miss]], but Commander Ivanova wears a single earring. One of Claudia Christian's brothers was killed by a drunk driver when they were kids, and she placed the other earring in his casket at the memorial service. [[MementoMacguffin Ivanova's reason]] for wearing the single earring was made explicit in the prequel movie ''In The Beginning'', which shows that she gave the other earring to her older brother for good luck, only for him to die during the Earth-Minbari War.** The infamous "teddy bear meets airlock" and the annoyance over merchandising? Yeah, JMS had a lot of pent-up frustration, particularly at Kenner, over their interference with ''WesterenAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' to make the series more {{Toyetic}}, so when he had an opportunity to take a clean shot at toy companies, he did so with glee. * The main character of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' is an anthropologist[=/=]writer named Temperance Brennan. She writes mysteries about an anthropologist named Kathy Reichs. Back in reality Kathy Reichs is an anthropologist[=/=]writer who writes mysteries about an anthropologist named Temperance Brennan. Also, when actress EmilyDeschanel was pregnant, her character was too.* In the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise:** Olivia Benson's stint undercover (leading to her temporary disappearance from the show) in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' was because the actress was pregnant.** ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury'':*** Creator/JerryOrbach died of prostate cancer just after joining the cast of, after spending 12 years on the mothership show as Detective Lennie Briscoe. ''Trial By Jury'' was cancelled in its first season due to low ratings, and Briscoe is stated to have died offscreen sometime thereafter.*** In one episode, Briscoe is huddled by the door of a courtroom with some cops and is providing whispered commentary so as not to interrupt what's going on inside. The scene was written this way because Creator/JerryOrbach was so weak from cancer treatments that he couldn't raise his voice to a normal speaking volume.** A rather haunting episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' revealed that Mike Logan, Briscoe's first onscreen partner, imagined that he could still see Lenny. It wouldn't be surprising if there were a lot of Creator/ChrisNoth's emotions in there.* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':** Chandler's "transfer" to Tulsa was because Creator/MatthewPerry was going through rehab. (He still appeared in every episode, just not as many scenes). Many of the scenes revolving around Monica's support of him moving probably reflected the real life support the [[{{TrueCompanions}} Friends cast]] gave Matthew Perry during this time. (Especially as other cast members said Courteney Cox who plays Monica, was one of the most supportive people for him).** Chandler's weight also fluctuated throughout the series, much more than the other characters, due to Matthew Perry's drug problems. In the early episodes Chandler was average size, however in later seasons he was extremely skinny and in other seasons he gained weight back. In one case he looked noticeably heavier in a season premiere that was supposed to take place shortly after the previous season's finale.** Monica and Chandler's struggle to have children while not based on Courteney Cox's miscarriages did reflect her situation. To the extent Courteney found some scenes difficult to film, and Matthew Perry's previously mentioned close friendship with her meant his delivery of Chandler's 'she's mother without a child' speech was particuarly heartbreaking and emotional. * Latka's SplitPersonality problem in Season 4 of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' was conceived to relieve Creator/AndyKaufman's boredom with the role, making him TheCastShowoff in the process. Andy was extremely fond of assuming alternate identities in real life, which was to be incorporated into a first season episode where his AlterEgoActing persona Tony Clifton would serve as the guest star while Andy/Latka was elsewhere...it didn't work because Tony treated ''everyone'' like dirt, to the point he was not only fired, but escorted from the Paramount lot.* In ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', the deaths of the actors playing four characters were written into the show: Grandad and Uncle Albert were said to have died (and their funerals shown), Mike Fisher was said to be in prison for embezzlement (leading to Sid taking over the Nag's Head), and Denzil's wife Corrine was said to have finally divorced him.* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''** Both of Dr. Cox and Jordan's children in were written in because Christa Miller became pregnant, as was Sarah Chalke's pregnancy in the final season.** In "My Cake", Scrubs paid proper homage to John Ritter's death by having J.D.'s father (who, of course, was played by John Ritter a couple years previous) die of a massive heart attack.** In "My Catalyst", Dr. Kevin Casey is played by Creator/MichaelJFox. Casey suffered from OCD, a neurological disorder that usurps (directed) control of the body from a person. Fox stated in an interview that he let his struggles with Parkinson's (a neurological disorder that causes a person's body to shake uncontrollably) inform Casey's character.* When ''Series/PrisonBreak'' actress Creator/SarahWayneCallies' pregnancy overlapped with the first few episodes of season three, the writers plotted around her maternity leave. The Fox Network refused to sign off on the proposed plotline of season 3, forcing the writers to redo everything, and their new season arc came to involve the death of Callies' character. The actress refused to return to work just to be killed off, hence her offscreen death in the fourth episode of season three. But she came BackFromTheDead in season four anyway.* During the production halt observed for the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'''s Michael Trucco (Samuel Anders) was involved in a near-fatal car accident. He miraculously survived the event with little lasting damage except a rather large scar down the back of his neck. To allow him to recover but still be an active part of the show for its final season the writers came up with a scenario involving Anders being struck by a bullet and suffering massive brain trauma and being immobile for the remainder of the show but still an integral part of the final arc. By the time the post-script move ''[[TheMovie The Plan]]'' went into production, he was back on his feet and back to doing the kind of stuff his character was known for.* [[spoiler:Warrick Brown]]'s murder on ''Series/{{CSI}}'' occurred shortly after [[spoiler:Gary Dourdan]] was released from the show.* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': By a rather unfortunate coincidence, the cast and crew ended up filming the funeral scene at the end of "The Message" shortly after Creator/JossWhedon delivered the news that Creator/{{Fox}} had decided to cancel the show. The characters might have been mourning the death of [[spoiler: Private Tracey]], but the cast was mourning the end of the show that they'd poured so much effort into.* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':** In one episode, Kurt wants to sing "Defying Gravity" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', but runs into some trouble because it's traditionally sung by a girl. Kurt's actor, Creator/ChrisColfer, had wanted all throughout high school to sing the song at the talent show, but was denied.** Kurt and Mercedes are best friends on the show; Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Amber Riley (Mercedes) are best friends in real life.** In the episode "Furt," Sue Sylvester just happens to be acting principal of [=McKinley=] and undergoes CharacterDevelopment that makes her more sympathetic to Kurt's bullying problem. Sue also realizes her own mother is a bully as well, as evidenced by continued disapproval and PassiveAggressiveKombat over Sue's plan to marry [[spoiler: herself]]. Creator/JaneLynch is an outspoken gay icon in real life who had recently married her girlfriend (though they divorced in 2013), so someone behind the scenes may have decided the episode's {{Gay Aesop}}s (about bullying and marriage) were more poignant coming from her.** In one season 3 episode, Blaine is hit in the face with a slushie laced with rock salt, and injures his [[EyeScream eye]] badly enough that he has to have surgery. He's completely absent from the following two episodes, the reason being of course that he's at home, resting after his surgery. In reality, Creator/DarrenCriss was absent from the filming of those two episodes because he was doing a two-week stint in Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying on Broadway.* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Warren Mears accidentally kills Tara Maclay. At the time, the actors, Adam Busch and Creator/AmberBenson, respectively, were dating, and Creator/JossWhedon actually told Adam, "You're gonna kill your girlfriend," to which the reply was "Warren gets a girlfriend?" "No, I mean your real girlfriend." Eight years later, by the way, they're still together. This relationship was actually the inspiration somewhat for the Buffy fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3460966/1/Difficult_to_Fight_Against_Anger Difficult to Fight Against Anger]]''.** Cordelia's fall onto a piece of rebar in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E8LoversWalk}} Lovers Walk]]" was based on a similar incident that occurred to Creator/CharismaCarpenter in real life.*** Cordelia's pregnancy in season 4 of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' coincided with Creator/CharismaCarpenter's real-life pregnancy, and also threw out an idea to have the season end with a fight between Angel and Cordelia.** When Angel breaks up with Buffy in the third season of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the tears are real. Creator/SarahMichelleGellar, who considers Angel and Buffy soulmates, apparently cried for so long that the set had to be shut down briefly.** Similarly, in the episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' where Angel becomes human and he and Buffy have 24 hours of perfect bliss before he voluntarily gives it all up ("[[Recap/AngelS1E18IWillRememberYou I Will Remember You]]"), Gellar was so distraught by the plotting that viewers can actually hear Creator/DavidBoreanaz consoling Sarah (by name) rather than Angel comforting Buffy.** The Anointed One, a [[UndeadChild child vampire]] who was the Master's protege in season 1, was initially planned to be the BigBad of season 2. He ended up being [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains shoved into a cage and incinerated]] by Spike early in the season when it became apparent the actor was visibly growing up and wouldn't be able to remain convincing as a never-aging vampire for long. ** The ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' episode "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople}} Conversations With Dead People]]" features four different subplots that [[DeadPersonConversation share a common theme]], but are different in tone mostly unrelated. This is because they were all written by different writers due to time constraints.** Giles CommutingOnABus in seasons 6 and 7 due to Creator/AnthonyHead moving back to England.* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment loves these''. In particular, a number of episodes in the third season explicitly refer to the show's struggle to stay on air and meet executive demands. Then there's the case of Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio) replacing Gary Zuckerkorn (Creator/HenryWinkler) as the family's lawyer...** Season 4 had a subplot about GOB being unable to recognize his son, Steve Holt. The writers included this because in real life, Justin Grant Wade (the actor who portrays Steve) had put on weight and become nearly unrecognizable during the seven years between the show's cancellation and [[{{Uncancelled}} Uncancellation]]. * In the 1983 adaptation of Creator/JinYong's story ''Return of the Condor Heroes'', numerous people applauded the performance of how love-struck and romantic Andy Lau (who played Yang Guo) was towards Idy Chan (who played the character's love, Xiao Long Nu). Apparently, Andy Lau has since admitted that he harbored a huge crush on Idy Chan. To quote him, "When I collaborated in ''Return of the Condor Heroes'' with her, I really felt that she's my girlfriend. When we go home after work, I would be worried about her and think of her. Then when we collaborated again in ''Casino Raiders'' where she played Alan Tam's girlfriend, I felt unhappy about it."* Alaina Huffman's pregnancy has apparently been written into ''Series/StargateUniverse''. In fact the ''Stargate'' canon has never (in 16 seasons of television starring at least one and usually two or more women) included a pregnancy it wasn't forced into by actress pregnancies. The best one is probably the first, Sha're's pregnancy with the Harcesis, which actually came about because Vaitiare Bandera was pregnant. The father was Michael Shanks, who played Sha're's husband, Daniel. Less important for the series but the same father, Dr. Lam/Lexa Doig, which resulted in Lam just disappearing for a while without explanation. Note to producers: keep Michael away from your actresses.** Later on Amanda Tapping was in Area 51 for 6 episodes at the beginning of the ninth season because of her pregnancy - lots of cunning video-conferencing with conveniently placed computers. While she was away Claudia Black did a guest spot on the show to [[TheSmurfettePrinciple inject some estrogen]]. At the end of the ninth season Black's character, Vala, returns...and she's pregnant, because Black was.** Teyla's pregnancy on ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' was because of Rachel Luttrell's real-life pregnancy. ([[RunningGag But Michael Shanks wasn't even on that show]]!)** And a non-pregnancy ''[=Stargate=]'' one -- in the episode "Nemesis" Daniel Jackson is mostly out of the picture because he has appendicitis... because Michael Shanks was recovering from appendicitis.** Also, Jack O'Neill was [[PutOnABus transferred to the Pentagon to head Homeworld Command]] when Richard Dean Anderson decided he wanted to retire. Later on in the show, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute his replacement]] Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder), complains about shows who lose their lead actors and just replace him with a younger version of the same guy.** General Hammond died of a heart attack because of the death of his actor, Creator/DonSDavis. The ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser ''George Hammond'' in one of the movies and ''Series/StargateUniverse'' was renamed in his honor.** In ''Family Ties'', Carter and Jacek have a conversation which is ostensibly about the lack of funding given to the SGC, but is actually an obvious reference to the then-recent cancellation of the show and its replacement with the series ''[[Series/{{Eureka}} Eureka]]''.--->'''Jacek:''' I don't mind telling you, I'm a bit disappointed in this facility. I was expecting more.\\'''Carter:''' Well, at times so do we. But the truth is the Stargate Program just doesn't get the support it used to from the people in charge.\\'''Jacek:''' Why not?\\'''Lee:''' ''[working on something nearby]'' Eureka! One down, twelve to go.\\'''Jacek:''' That's too bad, because after all your Stargate Program has accomplished for this '''network''' of planets, I would think the decision makers would show it the respect it deserves.* ''Series/MakeItOrBreakIt'' actress Chelsea Hobbs (Emily Kmetko) was pregnant so this was written into her character's story arc.* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'':** The final season opens with an episode where Joel Hodgson (the creator and original host) made a cameo after leaving five seasons before. Replacement host Mike Nelson becomes jealous that he got to escape and have a normal life, and Tom cautions him "Don't compare yourself. It ain't healthy." This line is a FandomNod to the "Joel vs. Mike" debates that raged over the Internet when Hodgson first left the series, debates that still go on to this day over a decade later (despite the fact that Hodgson and Nelson are good friends).** During an Season Seven episode, Crow goes through a hassle trying to get his film made and marketed. This mirrors the tough times getting the ''[=MST3K=]'' film made and marketed.** The episode ''Gamera vs. Guiron'', has a line that's become infamous as the show's most obscure joke ever. There's a shot of a girl running away from the camera, and Tom Servo shouts, "Look out, Mike, she's got your keyboard!" This was a reference to the fact that head writer Mike Nelson was once dumped by a woman who stole his keyboard and took it back to Japan with her. (And this was back when Joel was the lead character, and Mike Nelson only made occasional appearances in front of the camera.)* During the filming of the ''Series/{{Psych}}'' pilot, Kirsten Nelson (Chief Vick) was pregnant. While she gave birth before the filming started proper, they never hid it in the pilot, and her character continued to be pregnant until halfway through the first season.** Timothy Omundson (Lassiter) broke his collarbone in a mountain biking accident. Consequently, Lassiter's arm was in a sling for a few episodes in season 2, an injury that he mysteriously never explained despite being asked by other characters.* On ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Jane Leeves' pregnancy was written into the show. The guilt Daphne suffers as a result of leaving Donnie at the altar, and the difficulties in Daphne and Niles' new relationship, cause Daphne to begin overeating. She gains sixty pounds, but Niles is so blinded by love he doesn't notice until Daphne falls to the floor and is too heavy to get up without the help of Frasier, Niles and Martin (who remarks "it took three Cranes to lift you!") The weight problem was written into the show to allow Leeves to continue working while pregnant. Daphne then left for several weeks to attend "fat camp" and returned with her figure restored. During the episode "It Takes Two to Tangle" in which she did not appear while at the resort, Niles tells Roz that Daphne had lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces (the weight of Leeves' baby in real life). Leeves' second pregnancy, in the 11th season, was written into the show as her character getting pregnant, though.* JJ's eponymous final episode for ''Series/CriminalMinds'' is practically this. The cast and crew's sentiments about the decision to fire A.J. Cook were expressed [[SarcasmMode very subtly]] and emotions of the other characters during JJ's farewell weren't just acting, they were real.** And the reason that JJ has to leave the BAU is extremely close to the reason that AJ Cook had to leave the show: [[ExecutiveMeddling mandates from those higher up]].** Prentiss' departure was also forced by the same mandate, requiring the producers to fire Paget Brewster. Both ladies made it back after one season and a ''very'' aggressive fan campaign.** Matthew Gray Gubler injured his knee while filming ''500 Days Of Summer'' and so his character Spencer Reid had to be shot in the leg to explain this.*** In fact, earlier in the show, a wrist injury on Gubler's part required Reid to go through the same.** The episode ''Coda'' centers around Reid and Rossi trying to communicate with a young autistic witness. One of Joe Mantenga (Rossi)'s daughters is autistic. (Interesting sidebar: his other daughter appears in the episode ''3rd Life''.)** Reid saving the day with a magic trick in ''Derailed'' way back in the first season was written in because Gubler is accomplished at sleight of hand. It's since become a recurring character quirk. In fact, fans often debate how much of what we're seeing onscreen is Reid and how much is Gubler as a profiler.** Jason Gideon left the agency due to emotional stress and growing pessimism due to the cases he was working. This reflects actor Mandy Patinkin's growing disgust with the show's grim content.** Hotch goes on a temporary assignment (off-screen) in the third episode of season 12 before being revealed to be put in a witness protection system in a later episode. In reality, Thomas Gibson was fired due to an altercation with a co-writer.* Following Creator/JohnRitter's tragic and sudden death (he collapsed on set), his show ''Series/EightSimpleRules'' aired a sobering episode about his character dying in an accident and his family dealing with it.* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Jacket", Jerry and George meet Elaine's father, Alton, and they're very intimidated by him. Lawrence Tierney, the actor who played Alton scared the ''Seinfeld'' cast and crew just as much with his offscreen behavior (he stole a butcher knife from the set and hid it under his jacket), which is why the character never appeared again.* ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'': Creator/LarryDavid's divorce with his real life wife led to Season 6 onwards being about Larry and Cheryl's gradually worsening relationship. In Season 8, they actually get divorced. This has considerably changed how the series might have continued.* Shane Conor's drug problems and alleged violence on the set of ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'' led to him being fired from the show, so his character Joe Scully implausibly disappeared to run a farm in Bendigo.* Mr. Humphries of ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'' was eventually promoted to Senior Salesman because the producers were tired of casting elderly actors who subsequently died. In turn, actor John Inman asked for Humphries' promotion not to be formally acknowledged, because he was superstitious about all those dead actors before him.* Then there is the insanity that is the show formerly known as ''Valerie''. Star Valerie Harper was let go at the very start of production of season 3, amid accusations of demanding too much money and being hard to work with; her character was [[McLeaned killed off]] and replaced with Sandy Duncan (who played her sister-in-law), and the title was changed to ''Valerie's Family: The Hogans''. Then Harper won a defamation suit against the studio, forcing them to change the title again to ''Series/TheHoganFamily''.* In the middle of filming the second season of ''Series/{{Titus}}'', Creator/CynthiaWatros became pregnant. ''Their'' way of hiding it was rather ingenious; during the early stages, her character wore a lot of baggy, shabby clothes, as she had temporarily gone back to her parents and pretty much given up on her dreams after Christopher started drinking again (long story), and she was still getting over that. Later, as she got bigger, her character broke her leg chasing after a burglar, and spent the bulk of the rest of the season in a wheelchair. They ''did'' also work the pregnancy into a cutaway gag; Erin wins a pie-eating contest, then stands up triumphantly, revealing a swollen belly.* Following the death of Creator/PhilHartman, the first episode of the next season of ''Series/NewsRadio'' had the [=WNYX=] staff dealing with the death of his character, Bill [=McNeal=] of a heart attack in front of the TV. Apparently the actors ''weren't acting''. Their responses to Bill's death mirror the actor's actual responses to Phil's death, including, apparently, Beth (Creator/VickiLewis) standing outside Bill's apartment, drunk, calling his name, and Matthew (Creator/AndyDick) believing Bill's gonna come back somehow. Of course, ''that'' puts an extra subtext on Dick's fucked up behavior the last few years (particularly the incident that caused Creator/JonLovitz to beat the crap out of him).* ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'' was [[ReTool retooled]] into ''Series/SoRandom!'' due to the departure of star Music/DemiLovato following her rehabilitation from eating disorders, self-harm and depression.* During the fourth season of ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'', Hercules received less screentime. Iolaus and Autolycus got more to do, a Autolycus/Salmoneus episode (which Herc doesn't even appear in) and several Series/YoungHercules episodes were produced. This was due to Kevin Sorbo's health problems that year and production worked to accomodate while he recovered. The ClipShow "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Hercules" is quite obviously LeaningOnTheFourthWall, as it shows a production team desperately trying to do the show when Sorbo is suddenly unavailable.** During a ''Xena'' CrossOver "Prometheus," Michael Hurst injured his arm during a fight sequence. In "Cast A Giant Shadow," Iolaus' arm is subsequently injured and shown in a cast for a couple episodes.** "Regrets... I've Had A Few" was filmed at the end of Season 3. Kevin Sorbo was eager to start his vacation, so the writing staff decided to give him less to do and plug the ''Young Hercules'' pilot at the same time.** In "For Those Of You Just Joining Us," [[Creator/BruceCampbell Rob Tapert]] announces his plan to kill off Iolaus in the fifth season to generate interest in the series. He mockingly says this Paul Coyle, who is being played by Michael Hurst. The real-life Tapert actually did do this with Hurst for those reasons, though presumably in a far kinder way, of course.* Early into the second season of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', Lucy Lawless broke her pelvis during a stunt accident on ''Series/TheTonightShow''. More so than with Sorbo the following year, production jumped through hoops to make it work. Xena's bodyswitch with Callisto in "Intimate Stranger" carried on into "Ten Little Warlords," she now died at the end of "Destiny" and new Xena-lite scripts were produced (such as "The Quest," "Necessary Evil" and "For Him the Bell Tolls") to give Lawless time to recover.* The breakup of Penny & Leonard on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' [[BlatantLies was certainly not inspired by the fact that Kaley Cuoco & Johnny Galecki broke up in real life around the same time]]. [[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken Surely!]]** Also, several episodes featured Penny tending bar at work and not much of her being seen from the waist down. This coincided with Kaley Cuoco's leg being in a cast after she was seriously injured while horseback riding.** Similar tactics were needed when Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) injured her hand in a car accident. For several episodes, Amy's hand was always out of the shot, usually hidden behind things or placed beneath a tabletop.* The TV series ''Series/MaxHeadroom'' was about an investigative reporter fighting {{MegaCorp}}s using the power of pirate broadcasting. Seven months after its American debut, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion_incident we got this.]]* Tim Allen's sitcom ''Series/LastManStanding'' sees his first lines including "I'm back!" and "It's good to be home" - referencing his return to TV and network ABC over ten years after ''Series/HomeImprovement'' ended.* In ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', Sophie disappears to go "find herself". This is because of actress Gina Bellman's real-life pregnancy.** Several episodes are centered around examples of the CastShowoff. ''The Schehearade Job'' involves Alec Hardison playing the violin, which Aldis Hodge can do in real life. ''The Studio Job'' centers entirely around Eliot performing country music, while Christian Kane has his own country band.* Because of the intense, complicated nature of their storylines, this is often seen on [[SoapOpera soap operas]]. One actress' RealLife struggle with losing her pregnancy weight was turned into a storyline for her character (though her RealLife methods never became as extreme as her character, who turned to diet pills and eventually ran down her friend's son--who lived, fortunately--while high), while several others decision to have plastic surgery was also played out on the show. But the most prominent example has been with onscreen romances eventually transcending to RealLife. Two especially eerie examples include two characters who were involved in an extramarital affair--the actors eventually left their spouses to marry each other, while at least two others had a couple's RealLife love story virtually parallel their onscreen one--meeting, friendship, dating, marriage, children. . .and divorce.** NYPD Officer John Perry had a recurring role as a police officer on ''Series/OneLifeToLive''. On September 11, 2001, he was at One Police Plaza (just a few blocks away from the World Trade Center) when he learned of the attacks and dashed to the site to help. He was killed when the South Tower collapsed. In September 2002, Llanview's Police Commissioner Bo Buchanan was seen looking at a photo of Perry and sadly commenting, "I can't believe it's been a year" The in-universe story was that Perry had been ''visiting'' New York that day (the show is set in Pennsylvania), but died just as he had in RealLife. It's not hard to imagine that Robert Woods (who played Bo), didn't have to do much acting to convey his sadness.* By the fourth and final season of ''Series/HannahMontana'', Music/MileyCyrus adopted a more mature image (she was 18-going-on-19), and had already released the reflective and (slightly) HotterAndSexier album ''Can't Be Tamed'' earlier in 2010. Many of the plots and themes in ''Hannah'' seemed to address this change, from Miley wincing at the girlish look of the new room her dad put together for her, to Hannah trying new styles of music and getting backlash for it, to Miley Stewart wondering if fans would accept the real Miley without the wigs and flashy clothing after she revealed her identity and performed as herself.* Lindsay got pregnant on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' because of Anna Belknap's real life pregnancy. The first time, it was hidden, but the second one was the reason for Lucy's birth.* Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Cameron) and Jesse Spenser (Dr. Chase) dated in real life before their characters got together on ''Series/{{House}}'', and were even at one point engaged to be married. Subverted in that the actors had broken up before the characters got married.* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Mac was assigned to [[TheJudge the judiciary]] in the later half of season eight because of Catherine Bell's pregnancy.* The last two episodes of ''Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' hosted by original host Bob Saget did not have him [[SigningOffCatchPhrase ad-lib a line to his wife]]. This was because his marriage was falling apart at the time.* On the season 4 premiere of ''Series/{{Community}}'', this happens a lot. Abed not wanting to graduate is rather bittersweetly reflective of the show's fans reaction to this season being rumored to be its last. The theme of coping with unexpected/unwelcome change also reflects the numerous behind-the-scenes shake-ups that have dogged the show since the middle of the previous season, chief among them the mid-season hiatus and the firing of Creator/DanHarmon as show-runner. Abed's 'happy place' is presented as a rather blandly cheery and formulaic sitcom — the same sort of sitcom fans worried that ''Community'' itself would turn into in an attempt to become more 'mainstream' after the firing of Harmon.** Halfway through his guest stint as Robert Laybourne in Season 3, Creator/JohnGoodman unexpectedly had to grow a beard and ponytail for his role as a drug dealer in the movie ''Film/{{Flight}}''. Troy is surprised by Laybourne's shocking new appearance, which Laybourne [[{{Handwave}} claims is a result of]] "[[NoodleIncident Going through some stuff right now]]".** In the Season 5 premier, the gang discusses the disastrous final season of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', and how Creator/ZachBraff only returned for a handful of episodes. Troy reacts angrily to this, and calls Braff a "Son of a bitch" for bailing on the show after it made him famous. In real life, it had been announced that [[Music/ChildishGambino Donald Glover]] (Troy's actor) was leaving the show five episodes into the season in order to focus on his rap career, which made the line a bit of good-natured SelfDeprecatingHumor. *** The entire episode is this. It's basically an acknowledgement of the show's decline in quality, with Jeff pointing out that none of the characters have accomplished the goals they set out to do at the onset at the series, and have become {{Flanderized}} parodies of themselves. There's even an AuthorsSavingThrow attempt to {{Handwave}} away the events of the reviled [[DorkAge Season 4]].** Season 5's finale has a similar tone, as the show's future was once again uncertain. With both Donald Glover and Chevy Chase gone, some fans began questioning how much longer the show could go on, and to reflect that, Annie asks if Greendale is even worth saving now that Troy and Pierce are both gone.* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' had to do this twice with the patriarch of the Ewing family. Jock Ewing was killed off in the fourth season of the original series after actor Jim Davis passed away prior to the season. Then, in a eerily similar situation, JR was killed off in the second season of the new series following Larry Hagman's death.* In ''Series/MiamiVice'', James Crockett (Don Johnson) has a very contentious working relationship with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos). This "feud" wasn't just created for the cameras - Johnson and Olmos often argued during the first season due to their wildly different acting styles, and there are scenes and moments that unintentionally evoke this feeling of tension between them. Notably occurs in "Nobody Lives Forever" (where Johnson looks visibly disturbed while Olmos glowers at him) and "Back in the World", where Crockett rails at Castillo for not having the resources to do his job (and Olmos not even looking at Johnson until the very end of the scene).* After ''Series/BreakingBad'' finished, writer-producer Vince Gilligan said that he belatedly realised that he had written a story about a man having the worst [[HollywoodMidlifeCrisis mid-life crisis]] ever, at a time in his life when he was probably due for one himself.* Minor example in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': actor Chris Pratt dropped a significant amount of weight and put on some muscle for his part in ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty''. They could cover up the muscle by dressing his character Andy in baggy clothes (not much of a departure for the slovenly character); the weight loss is {{Handwave}}d in a throwaway line revealing that he's given up beer.* If one interview in particular is any indication, this was the result of ''Series/CaptainPowerAndTheSoldiersOfTheFuture'' breaking a number of taboos, including at least two instances of swearing, and an important good guy character being killed off onscreen. In the interview in question, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski reveals that he had known someone who had taken their own life despite his best efforts to stop them, which likely [[CreatorBreakdown influenced his decision to write those certain episodes (possibly even more of the series) the way he did]]. * In season 2 of ''Series/Daredevil2015'', [[BlindJustice Matt Murdock]] and [[SexySecretary Karen Page]] are set up as an OfficialCouple. If Creator/{{Deborah Ann Woll}}'s onscreen chemistry with Creator/CharlieCox during their scenes looks so good, it's because her real-life boyfriend EJ Scott is blind, having lost his sight to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choroideremia Choroideremia]], and one of her pet causes involves raising awareness for the disease.* Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' fame have dated on and off in much the same way that their characters Kelly and Ryan did on the show.* The "show about making a show" premise of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' gave numerous opportunities for this; a notable example is a season 6 arc involving Tracy Jordan making offensive comments about gay people, which aired less than a year after a similar real-life incident involving the character's actor, Tracy Morgan.* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' was conceived after Creator/JossWhedon, who'd swore that he would never again work with Fox after his terrible experiences making ''Firefly'', was asked by Eliza Dushku to produce a show for her so that she could get out of her contract to Fox. To hear Whedon tell it, Fox treated him very much the same way that Rossum treats its "Actives", which may go a long way towards explaining why the show is much darker than most Mutant Enemy shows.* In ''Series/OneTreeHill'', Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis became AmicableExes after their breakup. Their actors were married for a while.* Laurel Lance from ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' is walking with these. She has an alcoholic father, much like [[Creator/KatieCassidy her actress']] father having drinking problems. In the second season, she had a SelfDeprecation speech mentioning how people tend to stay away from her, alluding to her status as TheScrappy to most of the show's fandom. In the third, she becomes a ReplacementScrappy for her sister as the ComicBook/BlackCanary, both InUniverse and out.** This gets twisted further in Season 4 with [[spoiler:Laurel's death]]. Laurel continued to be a polarizing figure after donning the Black Canary mantle, only for many a fan's view of both Laurel and her previously torpedoed relationship with Oliver Queen to improve dramatically right before [[spoiler:Damien Darhk kills her]], though this is also tied to [[ShipToShipCombat their wariness]] with the show's handling and [[CharacterShilling shilling]] of Felicity Smoak--once a fan favorite whose romance with Oliver Laurel was pushed aside for--in the third and fourth seasons. Laurel's LoveConfession to Oliver, Oliver's laudation of Laurel's contributions to Starling City, and [[spoiler:his declaration of vengeance against Darhk]] all mirror the majority of the current ''Arrow'' fandom in some way or another.* ''Series/TheMindyProject'' has been criticized for its MonochromeCasting in regards to Mindy's love interests (who have all been white), although this criticism died down somewhat after she settled down with [[spoiler:Danny]]. In Season 4, she goes on a date with an Indian guy who doesn't think she's Indian enough for him. She then begins wearing traditional Indian clothes and even has a traditional Hindu ceremony [[spoiler:for her son Leo]]. The end of the episode even features Mindy asking her parents why they didn't immerse her more in Indian culture.* ''Series/{{ER}}''. Dr. Elizabeth Corday and Dr. Peter Benton have a brief and tense relationship that finally fizzles out when she realizes he'll never get over his discomfort of dating a white woman (he's African-American). In RealLife, Benton's portrayer, Eriq [=LaSalle=] was equally uncomfortable with the relationship, feeling that it sent a negative message to the African-American community and asked the show's writers to nix it.* Carly only appears in the first and last scenes of ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' episode "iBalls". This was because of her actress Miranda Cosgrove had to take time off to recover after breaking her ankle in a tour bus accident.* When Zooey Deschanel got pregnant, her character Jess on ''Series/NewGirl'' was sent up for jury duty* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'': As revealed by the production blog after the show wrapped, the scene at the start of the final episode where [[spoiler:Yuki reads Kengo's farewell letter after he's been killed by Gamou]], was the last scene filmed. According to director Koichi Sakamoto, the main actors had become as close as family over the course of the shoot, thus the tears being shed were their real tears over the fact that they were about to go their separate ways. It was made worse was the fact that [[spoiler:Ryuki Takahashi, Kengo's actor,]] couldn't be on the set for obvious plot reasons. The same blog post had Fumika Shimizu, Yuki's actress, reveal that she actually considered messing up her lines on purpose just so it wouldn't have to end.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Music/WarrenZevon's final album ''The Wind'' carried a much more depressing tone than his previous albums, as Zevon was dying of lung cancer and the album was meant to be his swan song.* Most of Music/{{Queen}}'s later songs are about the futility of life and the inevitability of death. At the time Freddie Mercury was [[AuthorExistenceFailure dying of AIDS]].* In 1991, most of Music/RebaMcEntire's road band was killed in a plane crash. The next album she released, titled ''For My Broken Heart'', was a collection of heartbreaking songs. [=McEntire=] explicitly stated that the project was intended to help her and her team through their grief.* The most famous UrExample for a generation may be Music/AlanisMorissette's biggest hit, "You Oughta Know" from ''Music/JaggedLittlePill'', based on a former bad relationship of the Canadian singer. It's still debated who that guy was, with pro hockey players and ''Full House's'' Dave Coulier being the most popular choices.* From the same generation comes Music/EricClapton's song "Tears in Heaven". It was written in the immediate aftermath of his young son's death, and the song quickly became far more famous as his personal response to that tragedy than for ostensibly being a soundtrack song for the movie ''Rush''.* Similarly, the song "All My Love" from Music/LedZeppelin's album ''Music/InThroughTheOutDoor'', was about front-man Robert Plant's son's sudden death from a stomach infection.* Much of Music/{{Rush}}'s 2002 album ''Vapor Trails'' deals with overcoming tragedy. This is based on two events: First, the deaths of lyricist Neil Peart's wife and daughter within a year of each other, shortly after the release of their previous album, ''Test For Echo'' (particularly "Ghost Rider"). Second, the 9/11 attacks the previous year (most blatantly "Peaceable Kingdom").* Music/DavidBowie's 1993 song "Jump They Say" was inspired by the suicide of his schizophrenic half-brother Terry in 1985.** His late-1970's works saw Bowie in the throes of cocaine addiction and a divorce. ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' depicted Bowie recovering from the addiction.** In late 2014, Bowie was diagnosed with liver cancer. ''[[Music/{{Blackstar}} ★]]'', recorded early the following year, was composed as a way for Bowie to reflect on this information and the very real possibility that the disease would kill him. [[YouCantFightFate It did]]: his cancer was declared terminal in November, and he passed away on January 10, 2016, two days after both ''★''[='s=] release and his 69th birthday.* Music/GreenDay's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" from ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' is about Billie Joe Armstrong's father's death from cancer when Billie was 10. The funeral was at the beginning of September, and when he came home from it with his mum, Billie locked himself in his bedroom, telling his mum to wake him up when the month ended.* Music/HarryChapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle" was based on a poem his wife wrote and was inspired by not being present at his son's birth.* Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Cinderella", about a father reflecting on how quickly his daughter is growing up and that he needs to be there for her even when he's busy, was originally inspired by his young daughters trying to get his attention by putting on Cinderella costumes and dancing while he was rushing through their bedtime routine so that he could get to the studio and work. The song--which features lyrics like "Soon the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone"--took on a tragic meaning later when one of his daughters that inspired the song, Maria Sue, was killed when her older brother accidentally ran over her in the driveway of their home. Although Chapman originally decided to never sing the song live again, he later decided to use the song to reflect his hope that he'd see his daughter again in Heaven, changing the final line from "she'll be gone" to "I know the dance will go on."* In-Universe example: in the film ''Film/AMightyWind'', Mitch Cohen's solo work after the breakup of the group Mitch & Mickey mimic his growing depression and mental instability, featuring such albums as "Cry for Help" (cover: Mitch in a padded room restrained by a straightjacket) and "Calling it Quits" (cover: Mitch waist-deep in a grave holding a shovel, with a tombstone behind him reading "RIP Mitch Cohen"). Like almost everything else in the movie, this is played for laughs.* Teen Pop example: Music/MileyCyrus wrote the songs on her ''Breakout'' album following her breakup with her first serious boyfriend, Creator/NickJonas. Several of the songs refer to the breakup.** In turn, the Music/TheJonasBrothers album ''Lines, Vines And Trying Times'' might contain songs written from Nick's standpoint about that same breakup.** Miley's 2013 NewSoundAlbum ''Bangerz'' was recorded at the age of 20-going-on-21 following a transitional period in her life. She had stayed in Detroit filming ''LOL'', then shot ''Film/SoUndercover'' in Philadelphia, where according to WordOfGod Miley had for the first time in her life truly grown up, away from her family, her comfort zone in Toluca Lake, California, and her Disney bubble. She had gotten her first tattoo away from the supervision of her mother, went clubbing, gotten to walk around freely in the streets of Philadelphia without paparazzi, enjoying life, and she had gotten a pixie haircut. She left her manager and record label, decided after the limited releases and subsequent flops of those films to concentrate almost exclusively on music and worked on developing a new sound and mature lyrical/musical approach to the album, working with producers Mike Will Made It and Pharrell Williams. She had worked so intensely on the record, apparently her most personal record , that her longtime relationship to fiancee Liam Hemsworth deteriorated. They called off their engagement not long before the album came out. The album's lyrics refect these changes; in keeping with her new image and HotterAndSexier approach, the album was released [[DarkerAndEdgier with an Explicit Lyrics sticker]] for the first time in her career.* Music/EltonJohn and his lyricist partner Bernie Taupin were on a career high in 1976. Albums were debuting at #1, and Elton was perhaps the top solo artist of TheSeventies. Personally, though, Elton and Bernie were both burned out from the rock lifestyle and superstardom. Elton broke up with his boyfriend, manager John Reid, while Bernie's first marriage was collapsing. Elton and Bernie had taken to drugs and alcohol, and Elton would soon reveal himself as a bisexual (in 1988, he would come clean as gay) to ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, leading to a backlash in Middle America. Elton's mental health was eroding as well, leading to depression and failed suicide attempts. This would be the context of Elton's 1976 double album ''Blue Moves'', an album filled with dark, introspective, despairing songs about failed relationships and dark character studies, with bits of bitter irony scattered around. Oddly enough, it would later be cited as one of Elton's favorite albums that he made.** ''The One'' and songs like "Runaway Train", "Simple Life" and the title track, and subsequent songs like "Weight Of The World", "Dark Diamond", "The Bridge" and "My Elusive Drug" reflect on Elton's rehabilition in 1990.* 1978 saw ProgressiveRock band {{Music/Genesis}} score their first hit, an (at the time) [[BlackSheepHit uncharacteristically romantic]] pop ballad called "Follow You Follow Me". They embarked on their longest, most successful tour yet, with a new audience thanks to FYFM's popularity. Music/PhilCollins returned to an empty home, his wife having left him (she had an affair with the house painter, then left for her native Canada) and taken the kids and dogs with her. Phil and the band took a hiatus for Phil to (unsuccessfully) repair the relationship. He channeled his grief and frustration into his first solo album, ''Face Value''. the songs he contributed to Genesis' ''Duke'' album, and some of Phil's ''Hello, I Must Be Going'' album. "Against All Odds", in fact, was written around the same time.** Collins later channeled the grief of his second marriage collapsing in songs on his ''But Seriously...'' and ''Both Sides'' albums. "Dance Into The Light" and ''Testify'', more "up" albums lyrically and musically, celebrate his romance to Orianne Cevey, who would be his third wife (they'd sadly divorce as well).* Earlier, ''former'' Genesis frontman Music/PeterGabriel felt stifled. The band wanted to lean more towards top 40 material, whereas he wanted to continue experimenting with ProgressiveRock. This was as the band was starting to reach mainstream success, and Gabriel's personal life (troubled marriage, sick daughter) meant that giving up his creative ambitions looked like a sensible option. He rejected the "sensible option" and started his solo career with the triumphant "Solsbury Hill," about his decision to take that risk and leave. ** His 1992 album ''Us'' was written while Gabriel was divorcing his first wife Jill, going through a breakup with actress girlfriend Rosanna Arquette, and estranged from his daughter Anna. The resulting album lyrically deals with dysfunction and miscommunication in relationships.** ''Up'' deals with mortality and death, a reflection of the death of his father and that of a mutual friend.* Music/AlanJackson's "I'll Go On Loving You" (self-explanatory) was released around the time that he and longtime wife Denise were going through some rough times, and actually spent some time apart from each other to cool down.* Music/DemiLovato recorded her hit, "Skyscraper", during the time period when her then-unknown depression, eating disorder and self-harm issues were at their peak, and her bulimia was damaging her voice. [[WordOfGod She claims]] the raw, emotional vocal take used was Demi singing from the heart as a kind of cry for help. A more technically polished take was apparently attempted post-rehab, but she preferred the more raw and emotional performance from the year before.* The nostalgic, fun-loving album ''An Innocent Man'' was recorded in 1983 during Music/BillyJoel's courtship to supermodel Christie Brinkley, who would be Billy's second wife. The bitter, self-reflective ''River Of Dreams'' was recorded in 1994 following his legal battle with his ex-brother-in-law (to his first wife) turned financial manager, and while Joel was breaking up with Brinkley.* Music/AfroCeltSoundSystem's song "Release" is sung [[DeadPersonConversation from the perspective of someone dead]], encouraging the living to to not "argue amongst yourselves / because of the loss of me", and to "be happy for me". These lyrics were written in the aftermath of keyboardist Jo Bruce's sudden death--the rest of the band had to put their upcoming album on hiatus as they mourned. Sinead O'Connor penned the lyrics, and it was the inspiration the band needed to come to terms with Bruce's death.* Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall'' was actually Roger Waters' way of dealing with the realization that he was becoming a cold destructive person, like Pink, the eponymous character of the album, and a way for him to reverse course on that. There are numerous other references to Pink Floyd's internal issues throughout the album as well, such as Pink saying that he has "a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" being a reference to Richard Wright's cocaine addiction. ** Waters wrote ''Music/TheWall'', ''The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking'' and parts of ''Music/TheFinalCut'' (mostly songs left off of ''Msuic/TheWall'') in the same 1978-79 period, during his CreatorBreakdown. The songs are lyrically and musically similar to each other and share similar themes of adultery, divorce, alienation, personal reflection, paranoia, fear, war, lack of communication and aging.** Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon was written while Waters was 29, and fearing time pass him by while he felt disappointed that he hadn't really had a real breakthrough success with Pink Floyd in the years following Syd Barrett's departure. Much of the album deals with mortality and the meaning of life. The followup, ''Music/WishYouWereHere'', was built around the pressures of the music industry, the and the band's disjointing and lack of focus when under pressure to record DSOTM and watching the positive and negative effects of their amazing success affect the band.** David Gilmour wrote ''The Division Bell'' after a period dealing with cocaine addiction and overeating, adultery, legal issues, a painful divorce from his first wife, an initially sometimes-rocky relationship with his current wife, troublesome relations between himself and his Pink Floyd band members, a period of writers block and his estrangement from Roger Waters. The album deals with breakdowns in communication and the struggles he faced during that time. ** The themes of lack of communication between band members and their wives are equally explored on albums like ''Obscured By Clouds'' and ''Atom Heart Mother'', notably "Stay", "If" and "Summer '68". All four band members' first marriages would break up by the end of TheEighties, and would contribute to the [[CreatorBreakdown Creator Breakdowns]] of each member (Gilmour, Wright and Mason would be affected vias strong cases of WritersBlock, which would lead indirectly to their estrangement from Roger Waters).* Music/JohnLennon, with Music/TheBeatles and as a solo artist, often wrote songs based on his personal life, sometimes as events were happening to him. Most famously, his ''Mind Games'' and ''Walls And Bridges'' albums (1973 and 1974 respectively) were written as John and Yoko separated and as John moved to Los Angeles to go through a painful two-year alcoholic binge he later referred to as his "lost weekend". ''Double Fantasy'' (1980) and ''Milk And Honey'' (recorded in 1980; posthumously released in 1984) saw John five years later, having reunited with Yoko, moved back to New York City, cleaned up, taken control of his life and living away from the music industry for five years to raise their son Sean and become a house-husband.* Lennon's ex-writing partner [[Music/PaulMcCartney Paul [=McCartney=]]] wrote the 1972 song "Dear Friend" as a peace offering to Lennon during the pair's very public feuding, and the 1982 song "Here Today" as a posthumous tribute to John. "Put It There" was a tribute to Paul's then recently deceased father.** Paul's ''Driving Rain'' album was written while he was in the glow of love to second wife Heather Mills. ''Chaos And Creation In The Backyard'', in retrospect, may have reflected the pair's strained relationship, which would end in a bitter divorce.** Music/{{Wings}} guitarist Jimmy [=McCulloch=] struggled with drug and alcohol dependency, and his two Wings [[StepUpToTheMicrophone compositions]], "Medicine Jar" from ''Venus And Mars", and "Wino Junko" from ''Wings At The Speed Of Sound", seem to reflect on his struggles. He died in 1979 of morphine and alcohol poisoning, two years after leaving Wings and a short stint in TheSmallFaces. * Music/TheKinks' "Two Sisters" is about a young woman who is married with children - she starts off being jealous of the more glamorous life led by her her single, freewheeling sister, then realizes she's better off because her children are important to her. Ray Davies actually meant the song to be a {{Gender Flip}}ped portrayal of the relationship at the time to his band-mate and brother Dave Davies: He was married with children, while Dave was single and more free to live the rock star lifestyle. * Music/{{Metallica}}'s ''St. Anger'' was born out of struggling with diminishing relationships between the band members, alcoholism and never getting over Cliff Burton's death. This is all painfully documented in the {{rockumentary}} ''Some Kind Of Monster''.* Music/TaylorSwift's romantic relationships and personal life are often reflected upon in her songs, sometimes to the point of humorists joking that she must start and end romances to provide subject matter for her music.** Much like the Creator/HideakiAnno example right in the anime folder, this may overlap with CreatorBreakdown when it doesn't end well.* Due to the sometimes foul mood Ian Anderson went through recording Music/JethroTull's ''Minstrel In The Gallery'' album, at a time when Ian was going through a divorce from his first wife, and he felt his band splintering and not playing as well together or concentrating on the music as well as they could have been (much of the album was acoustic/acoustical as a result), and he was busy writing the music in tax exile in Monte Carlo while watching "grotesque" tourists lounge around on the beach, the album had an even more cynical, darker (and self-reflective) air to it than usual. [[CreatorBacklash Ian would in later years see it as well-recorded but humorless, and would cite it as one of his less favorite albums as a result]], [[MagnumOpusDissonance in spite of it being a fan favorite to this day]].** ''Benefit'' saw Ian coping with success, the pressures of being seen as a countercutural hero, mistaken as a drug user/hippie for his madcap performing image and long hair, and his alienation at not really relating to many aspects of the counterculture who idolized him, such as recreational drug taking. He also saw [[NotSoDifferent conformity]] in how the counterculture conducted themselves, and in interviews expressed his distaste for the "seas of blue denim" flocking to his concerts[[note]]One anecdote made by Ian in an interview taken around this time claimed that had Jesus been alive today, he and Ian would be turning over the racks of blue denim at all of the clothing stores in town[[/note]]. He'd explore this further in ''Thick As A Brick''.) ** Ian [[WordOfGod also suggested]] the reasons for ''A Passion Play'' being written so complexly and with so little chances for the listener to breathe, is because Ian was fed up with drunken audience members whistling and screaming for "Aqualung" or "Locomotive Breath" during the soft acoustic passages during Tull's performances of ''Thick As A Brick'', a decision that in hindsight, [[CreatorBacklash Ian regrets]], and felt helped lead the album to be a hard listen (even for Ian) and so critically panned.* Tragically, the pained [[BreakupSong breakup songs]] written by Creator/{{Motown}} staff writer Rodger Penzabene, including TheTemptations' hits "I Wish It Would Rain", "You're My Everything" and "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)" and the Music/GladysKnight[=/=]Music/MarvinGaye duet "The End Of Our Road" were inspired by the the songwriter's RealLife heartbreak over his wife's [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]], and the couple's subsequent divorce. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, Penzabene would [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] on New Year's Eve 1967, one week after "I Wish It Would Rain"'s release. * Much of the music and lyrics written by Music/ElvisCostello, at least [[WordOfGod judging by the liner notes of the 1990s remasters of his albums]], seemed to be written by Costello as he gradually took on the same SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll lifestyle (mainly pills, alcohol and one-night-stands) he promised himself he'd never get involved in. ''Armed Forces'' and ''Get Happy!!'' in particular are filled with songs of regret, anger and heartbreak. His lifestyle, and the [[WeusedToBeFriends dissolution of his friendship]] with Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas, also seemed to accelerate the end of his first marriage, which would inform latter-period albums like ''Goodbye Cruel World'' and ''Music/BloodAndChocolate''.* "You Try Somebody Else (We'll Be Back Together Again)" was one of the last songs written by B.G. De Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson before De Sylva left the songwriting team. De Sylva did go on to write songs with other collaborators (as did Brown and Henderson after they broke up a few years later), but never reunited with Brown or Henderson, and ultimately gave up songwriting to become a movie producer.* Dennis [=DeYoung=] of Music/{{Styx}}, similarly to RogerWaters, felt disenchanted and disappointed in his lack of success in the music industry, and had seriously considered quitting music to be a professional teacher in 1976; thankfully, his wife talked him out of it. Much of his music on ''The Grand Illusion'', ''Pieces Of Eight'', ''Cornerstone'' and ''Paradise Theatre'' are filled with songs of hope and affirmation. He [[WordOfGod claims]] he wrote the songs about himself to raise up his own hopes to and convince himself to never give up, and that it was a bonus that it touched so many other listeners similarly. Likewise, a lot of ''Killroy Was Here'' came about because the band was pissed off about being unfairly smeared by MoralGuardians and the press over a wild and completely false UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory about alleged Satanic lyrics in their music and the attempts by said MoralGuardians to try and ban rock albums. * The [[IAmTheBand sole member]] of Grottomatic was so frustrated with the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Brony]] culture that he wrote the song [[http://grottomatic.bandcamp.com/track/the-bronies-have-landed “The Bronies Have Landed,”]] portraying the whole Brony concept as [[SeriousBusiness a serious problem.]] By the time he had finished recording the song, he had learned to love it, and he soon wrote a followup called [[http://grottomatic.bandcamp.com/track/girly-cartoon-about-ponies “Girly Cartoon About Ponies,”]] which praises the show.* Music/TheRollingStones were on the verge of breaking up due to differences between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards by 1986's ''Music/DirtyWork'', a fact reflected in the conflictive/bitter lyrical content of the album's lyrics/song titles. By 1989's ''Music/SteelWheels'', they had patched things up (quite possibly refected in the album's lead single, "Mixed Emotions").* Lisa Loeb's song "I Do" was written to sound like a breakup song, but it is also a TakeThat to the record label agents who claimed they didn't hear a single on the album ''Firecracker''.* Creator/GeorgeMichael wrote the song "Freedom '90" expressly to commemorate the end of his contract with Sony Records. His music video for the song included, among other things, him [[KillItWithFire burning his iconic leather jacket]] which he had worn in videos and promotional artwork for Wham.* A particularly notable example would be the song "Save the Last Dance For Me". Its composer, Doc Pumus, suffered from polio, and was inspired to write the song after watching his wife dance with other people at their wedding.* At the time Music/DollyParton wrote "I Will Always Love You", she was on Porter Waggoner's syndicated TV show. She wanted to leave the show to foster her budding solo career but wanted him to know that she appreciated all he did for her, and her thoughts resulted in the song. After she played it for him, he decided to release her from her contract as long as she had "Love You" recorded. It would go on to become a huge country hit and the rest is history.* "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" is a hymn about someone in deep despair begging God to comfort them and give them strength. Thomas A. Dorsey [[http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/precious.asp wrote it]] after his wife Nettie [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth to their son]], who also died two days later.* The Headstones album ''The Oracle of Hi-Fi'' has a number of songs that reference rehabilitation, addiction, and mistakes. This album was recorded after lead singer Creator/HughDillon got treatment for drug addiction. Incidentally, it is pretty apparent during the title track of their previous album, ''Nickels For Your Nightmares'', that this album was recorded before his rehabilitation.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''** [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2000/01/02 Here.]] "It's getting dark.." "We had fun, didn't we, Marcie?" It's the last Sunday strip of the comic.* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''** One strip features Calvin getting upset over going to bed, because it means that he can't play with Hobbes. Then he realizes that going to sleep doesn't have to mean being apart, because they can always play together in their dreams. Bill Watterson wrote the strip because his cat--who served as the inspiration for Hobbes--had just died, and what made him feel better was realizing that they could always be together in his dreams.** In Universe, Calvin imagines himself as various alter egos, the most common ones being Spaceman Spiff, a heroic explorer, Stupendous Man, a superhero, and Tracer Bullet, a detective. [[InformedAttribute They all are touted]] [[HerCodeNameWasMarySue as huge badasses]] [[DreamSue in Calvin's imagination]], but because they go up against people with more power than Calvin in real life (such as his mom, his teacher, and [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter Roslyn]]), they always lose.** There's a ''Calvin and Hobbes'' Sunday strip where Calvin's father says he sees everything in black and white, which leads Calvin to vividly imagine such a situation, and another with the same premise except with Calvin's father saying the boy doesn't have any sense of perspective, leading to Calvin being trapped in a world with no [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_point vanishing points]]. Both strips are based on Watterson's arguments with his syndicate on merchandising, where the company would accuse the cartoonist of seeing no shades of grey and having no perspective.** Another brief story arc in the strip saw Calvin placating the monsters under his bed by feeding them garbage, according to Watterson himself, a testament to how he sometimes felt in writing the strip. * A series of ''ComicStrip/HeartOfTheCity'' strips focused on Heart's friend Dean having a pet cat - Spock - who's so sick that his parents are about to have him put to sleep, but in the end, in turns out that it's a dog with the same name as the cat, and the cat is going to recover. The last strip of the series reveals that the cat who inspired the comic version has died.* Jim Davis once noted in an anniversary collection that whenever he has to go on a diet, so does ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]* In the early days of ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'', Reid's voice actor, Earle Graser, died in a car accident. As a result, The Lone Ranger was laid low for about a week and a half, and could only speak in whispers, until they found Brace Beamer, who would keep the role for the rest of the radio run.* On [[Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman the Superman radio show]], Collyer's vacation times were covered by having the series focus on Franchise/{{Batman}} and Robin instead.* When Barton Yarborough died, Ben Romero, his character on ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'', died as well. Romero wasn't killed in the line of duty, but rather died at home, of a heart attack. The cast responds to his death and spends the next several episodes grieving.* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'', "The Triangled Web" features a reunion of a number of the original kids. It is mentioned that Jack and Lucy went to the same college in Texas and got married by the end of the episode, reflecting how their voice actors Donald Long and Genni Mullen got married and moved to Texas as well.* Done many times in Radio/TheArchers: it's such a long-runner that a number of characters have been around long enough to become elderly - as have their actors. Dan Archer (the original patriarch), Tom Forrest and Mrs Antrobus were all given radio deaths because the actor had died of old age. This hasn't always been played straight; when the actor playing Nelson Gabriel died, the character was PutOnABus instead and other characters contined to refer to him as alive for some months. (News of his death was eventually mentioned.) A non-death example is that sometimes actors become well-known and aren't often available: Tamsin Greig's character, Debbie, has moved abroad, but comes back every so often. However, in the similar situation with Lucy Davies (Dawn from ''TheOffice'' UK, ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'') her character, Hayley, was recast.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]* When ''Series/TheMuppets'' returned from its midseason hiatus, it had a new showrunner, who had listened to the fans and decided to give it a bit of a ReTool to make it "more Muppety". In the first post-hiatus episode, ''Up Late With Miss Piggy'' is given a new showrunner who wants to give it a ReTool but ''doesn't'' listen to what anyone wants, prompting the Muppets themselves to make the show more Muppety.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Role-Playing Games]]* From ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'':** After the 2009 Website/{{BZPower}} Time Slip (also known as the Great Dataclysm), which erased six months of ''Dino Attack RPG'' content (including the entire Goo Caverns StoryArc up to that point), the ''Dino Attack RPG'' players agreed to start up again at a time and place shortly before the Time Slip occurred. Since this led to [[{{Rewrite}} rewriting several scenes that were erased by the Time Slip]], Sauro-Hunter remarked that he was experiencing deja vu.** During his time as a Stromling, Zachary [[RapidAging aged at an accelerated rate]]. The amount of time he physically aged is equal to [[DevelopmentHell the time]] between the end of ''Dino Attack RPG'' and the start of ''Dino Attack: At War's End''.** According to ''Dino Attack RPG'''s timeline, Toys/LEGOThemes take place during their year of release unless otherwise noted. Some ''Dino Attack RPG'' players were confused on whether or not ''Pharaoh's Quest'' is one of those exceptions, since it was released in 2011 but some sources say that it takes place in 1924; however, 1924 was confirmed as the canon date by WordOfGod. As a result of this confusion, Lord Sam Sinister announced that he was going on an expedition to Egypt in 2011 to recover the golden treasures of Pharaoh Amset-Ra, unaware that Professor Archibald Hale's team had already uncovered those treasures in 1924.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]* Some [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] historians think the [[KillEmAll decidedly grim]] tone of his play ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' may stem from the recent death of his infant son, Hamnet. (Note the name similarity.) KillEmAll is par for the course in Shakespearean tragedies, but in the original play, Hamlet ''won'' and lived HappilyEverAfter. When one remembers that Hamnet had a twin sister, there's also a subtext to be seen in ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', in which the heroine's twin brother, unlike in life, turns out to be alive after all.* ''Theatre/MaratSade'' is about Creator/MarquisDeSade getting inmates of Charenton, a mental institution, to put on a play. There's some truth behind this.* ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'' is a musical famous lyricist Creator/TimRice wrote while having an affair with Elaine Paige, starring Elaine Paige as a woman with whom a famous chess player has an affair.* ''Theatre/JosephAndTheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat'', [[Literature/TheBible about]] a man's triumph over his older siblings, was created for Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's older brother.* Creator/HenrikIbsen had a serious fallout with his Norwegian audience in the early 1860s. He left Norway for good and moved to Italy, where he lived for 16 years, only sending his plays home for printing. The last play he wrote before leaving, ''Theatre/ThePretenders'', has the main antagonist giving a jarring TheReasonYouSuckSpeech pointed directly towards the audience. Later ''Theatre/{{Brand}}'' shows off the same attitude. Ibsen had a lot to stress about.* During the runaway success of ''Theatre/HMSPinafore'', Creator/GilbertAndSullivan had huge trouble with [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil people pirating their works]] on the other side of the Atlantic. They arranged to have their next show produced simultaneously in America and in a small English village, in an attempt to get better legal protection from such pirates. And what was that new show? ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance''.* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'': Before leaving Austria, Captain Von Trapp sings "Edelweiss" as his last song at the music festival. "Edelweiss" was the last song Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein wrote together before Oscar Hammerstein's death.* A 1995 production of ''Theatre/TheSchoolForScandal'' starred Creator/TonyRandall -- who had just married a woman 50 years his junior -- as Sir Peter Teazle -- whose first line is "When an old bachelor marries a young wife, what is he to expect?"* ''Theatre/CloserThanEver'' has several songs inspired by the authors' personal experiences:** At the time Richard Maltby Jr. wrote the lyrics of "Fandango," his son was one year old, his wife, Janet Brenner, was co-producing ''Closer Than Ever'' and Maltby himself was simultaneously working on ''Theatre/MissSaigon''.** "Another Wedding Song" was originally written and performed by David Shire at his own second wedding to actress Didi Conn.** The cast recording's liner notes on "If I Sing" bear quoting in full:--->Maltby and Shire are both sons of orchestra leaders: bandleader and recording artist Richard Maltby, Sr. and Irving Shire, for fifty years a leading society bandleader in Buffalo, New York. When, after Williamstown, there was a need for a dramatic turn for the baritone role, Maltby suggested it was time they wrote about their fathers. He already had a title in mind. Shire wrote the melody and sent it to Maltby in London. While waiting for a reply, Shire visited his father in Buffalo, and the events described in the song occurred. When the authors started work on the lyric, Shire described his trip, and Maltby realized ''that'' was the story of the song. In a way the song is about itself, for the melody referred to in the lyric is the very melody that Shire played for his father that day in Buffalo.* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'' closely follow the relationship of Creator/AndrewLloydWebber and Creator/SarahBrightman. The first one is more of a case of HarsherInHindsight, as it premiered in 1985 and the pair separated in 1990.** In the first show, the Phantom fell in love with Christine when he heard her sing, made her the star of an existing opera, then wrote an opera for her to star in. But as Christine realizes he's a [[spoiler: murderer and stalker, she leaves him for the viscount Raoul de Chagny.]] Lloyd Webber met Brightman when she auditioned for Cats and was cast in the role of Jemima. He wrote a successful classical song for her, Pie Jesu, and specifically wrote the part of Christine for her (keeping the character design close to her style, added dance moves in Hannibal so that she could show off her footwork, and the cadenzas in the title song and Think of Me for her vocal range). He left her for another woman after six years of their marriage, and as [[spoiler: Christine clearly still loves the Phantom but cannot stay with him, which the Phantom also acknowledges, the feeling is supposedly identical between Brightman and Lloyd Webber.]]** In the sequel, Raoul [[spoiler: became an alcoholic and a gambler (metaphorically cheating on her with his addictions), and his marriage with Christine deteriorates. Christine gets fatally shot by a jealous Meg Giry after an accidental slight from the Phantom, professing her undying love for the Phantom with her last breaths. He gets acknowledged by his son with Christine, Gustave, who was previously thought to be Raoul's son. This mirrors the prevalent attitude of the fandom - that Erik (the Phantom) and Christine are the real crowd-drawer of the show, and that Christine should have chosen to stay with the masked composer in the first place.]] Raoul's character is completely out of line with his portrayal in the first show, as Erik/Christine shippers tend to turn him into RonTheDeathEater or make him DieForOurShip.* "On the American Plan," a sketch presented in the 1932 Broadway revue ''Flying Colors'', is set at a hotel which caters exclusively to the suicidal. At the end of a sketch, a man comes on and introduces himself as a theatrical producer, and the receptionists immediately tell him "Say no more!" as they [[LeaveBehindAPistol hand him a pistol]]. Though TheGreatDepression was obviously fatal to many renowned producers' careers (Ziegfeld left behind massive debts when he died in the same year), Max Gordon, the producer of ''Flying Colors'', really did attempt suicide during the show's tryout when he realized that the TroubledProduction was certain to lose its investment.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]* The main author for the ''{{Toys/BIONICLE}}'' media, [[WordOfGod Greg Farshtey]], when asked why the HumongousMecha Mata Nui never paid any attention to the fact that some of the tiny beings inside him were plotting to take over his body, would often use the analogy of a normal person who goes about their daily life, focusing on the outside world rather than paying attention to what the cells in their body were doing. However, he said, if that person was to have a health scare, then they would feel more inclined to keep an eye on what was happening inside them. Greg later revealed that he himself had been diagnosed with diabetes.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]* The time gap between the release of the original ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'' game in Europe and North America and the release of its sequel for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', is a whooping 25 years, month up month down. This is referenced in the plot of the sequel, which takes place 25 years after the events of the original. The ''very first thing'' Pit says as the game begins is "sorry to keep you waiting!" and it's directed at the audience as much as it is to Palutena.* It was also a long time since the original ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and the [[VideoGame/BackToTheFuture video game]] released in 2011, but they managed to get much of the cast back. In the interim years, for instance, Creator/ChristopherLloyd had gone (mostly) bald. The plot involves Marty feeling lonely and depressed after Doc leaves at the end of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', and he eventually meets an alternate version of Doc Brown, who's got the same balding as Lloyd in real life.* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', the first level is the final boss from ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D''. After its defeat, it's revealed that it was Duke [[ShowWithinAShow playing a video game based on himself]]. Someone asks him if the game was good and he says, "After 12 fuckin' years, it better be." This is referencing the fact that it took over a decade for ''Forever'' to be released. Also, the game actually takes place over a decade after ''3D''.* Given it's a series personifying the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars, it's unsurprising the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series is loaded with this. Actually gets PlayedForDrama in the backstory to ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory'', where [[spoiler: the world of 80's Gamindustri is still picking up the pieces after the nation of [[Creator/{{Atari}} Tari]] was [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 so horrifically mismanaged it collapsed]], sending the [[CrapsackWorld entire world to hell]] until [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} Lowee]] was founded and established some order again.]]* The knight training academy in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The game was released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series.* ''Videogame/MissileCommand'''s chilling "[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt THE END]]" GameOver screen was, [[http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/8/15/4528228/missile-command-dave-theurer according to the developer, Dave Theurer,]] inspired by [[BasedOnADream the recurring nightmares of nuclear war he was having by that point in the game development process.]] (The six cities that the player defends were, in the original design, six RealLife cities along the Pacific coast of UsefulNotes/{{California}}: Eureka, UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, and San Diego.)* Creator/DougTenNapel, the creator of ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'', is a Conservative Christian. The character of Professor-Monkey-For-A-Head, one of the bosses in the game, is not only an example of his wacky, absurdist humour; it is also [=TenNapel=]'s mockery of Darwin's theories and Evolutionism.* The storyline to the ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' games (which is dizzyingly detailed... [[AllThereInTheManual if you hunt down supplementary material]]) was often heavily influenced by fans. This is best seen between ''Fusion'' and ''Pure''. ''Fusion'' received a very mixed reception from fans, citing the game's heavier focus on combat over skillful racing, [[ReplacementScrappy new teams replacing old favorites]], and some subpar course designs. ''Pure'' was not only hailed as a return to form, but the backstory revealed that InUniverse, the change in focus was due to [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the shady Overtel Corporation]] seizing control of the race commission and doing what they liked in the name of profit, almost all of the new teams were in on the scandal or otherwise crooked and were dismantled during the league's collapse allowing the popular teams they adsorbed to re-emerge, ThatOneLevel was the site of a catastrophic accident precisely because of [[FakeDifficulty shoddy course design]], and the new league harkened back to the old style of racing in an attempt to recapture the audience and distance itself from the scandals.* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' can be read as a giant parable by Kojima for how "the Patriots" (i.e. Japanese ultranationalists) want to delete Japanese war crimes from school textbooks and shape the minds of the next generation. Snake's ending monologue, about letting children read "our" sad and messy history, is a pretty big clincher.* ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'': InUniverse, even. [[spoiler: Many aspects of the NMS universe are extrapolations of what the Atlas sees in the real world. For example, the Korvax are based on brain-scanning technology.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'' has a minor example: [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2011/01/19/a-perfect-plan/ Fortiscue asks about tabla lessons because the author was learning to play at the time]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]* Creator/DougWalker shaved his goatee to appear on a PBS comedy special. To explain the lack on facial hair in his shows, he stated that WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and WebVideo/AskThatGuyWithTheGlasses had placed bets that require them to shave if they lost and that [[WebVideo/BumReviews Chester A. Bum]] had shaved in order to fit in with the other two.** In a more dramatic example, the climax of WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee had [[spoiler: Doug sadly watch the Critic make a HeroicSacrifice to save the world]]. He later confirmed that the movie was made to be the Critic's FullyAbsorbedFinale. (though the show ended up UnCancelled)** Also in ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'', the subplot about the proposed SUCKA Act was a direct riff on the SOPA and ACTA Acts that were being debated in Congress in early 2012 and was of particular concern to the reviewers on the site, since they feared that they could be used to shut down their site and damage their livelihoods.** And the ''WebVideo/DemoReel''[=/=]''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' episode ''The Review Must Go On'' is this, as Doug is tormented by the star of the latter show, [[spoiler: who is revealed to ''be'' the star of the former.]].*** Speaking of ''WebVideo/DemoReel'', Doug showed just how much he was wrapped up in making the show work by indulging in a lot of this. Both Donnie's fear of failing as a director and his EthicalSlut behavior were his own, he said later that he would have made a LighterAndSofter episode about TMZ to work through his issues with them, and Rachel got involved by admitting her bad experiences with modeling and acting were what drove the sexism rants Rebecca kept having. ** In the [[Recap/TheNostalgiaCriticS6E14 Les Miserables Musical Episode]], WebVideo/PawDugan sings a love duet with Elisa from ''Webvideo/VampireReviews''. The two were engaged at the time, and later got married.** The Nostalgia Critic almost always in universe refers to himself or is referred to as The Nostalgia Critic, or Critic for short, but in his review of Doug's First Movie, his explanation of why he hated the Doug cartoon was actually related to real life teasing that Doug Walker experienced (not the Critic character, Doug himself) over his name and comparison to Doug Funnie, while admitting that the cartoon itself is just SoOkayItsAverage.* Out of apparently nowhere, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick developed an [[StalkerWithACrush obsessive crush]] on fellow reviewer WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows. The two had [[RomanceOnTheSet started a long-distance relationship in real life]], but it didn't fit for their characters to do the same.* Also, most of the humor in [[WebVideo/SadPandaQAndA Pan]][[WebVideo/{{Welshy}} shy]]'s video [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/welshy/specials/41272-team-panshy-shit-tgwtg-producers-and-fans-say-3 Shit TGWTG Producers and Fans Say]].* Similarly, ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' took SOPA/ACTA and used it as the basis of a {{backstory}} for a character. Essentially, the bill (unnamed, but heavily implied to be SOPA or a similar bill) caused a BigBrotherIsWatchingYou style setting for the character's home, which was what a lot of people had been fearing if such a bill passed.* ''Theatre/AVeryPotterSeniorYear'' is thematically focused on Harry Potter adjusting to the end of his time at Hogwarts and his life afterwards, reflecting TeamStarKid and the fandom's thoughts on growing up, moving on, and letting go of Franchise/HarryPotter and Hogwarts. The characters agree that while they loved their time at Hogwarts, they can't spend forever dwelling there and have to look forward to what's next.* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Volume Three starts with Ruby talking to her mother's grave. Monty Oum, the creator of ''RWBY'', [[AuthorExistenceFailure had passed away]] before the start of the volume, so Ruby talking also acts as the crew of Rooster Teeth talking to Monty. [[spoiler: At the end of Volume three, after several deaths in the show, a slow song mourning the loss of someone who changed the lives of those around them plays over the credits, which end InMemoriam to [[TearJerker Monty]].]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', episode "[[{{Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheTalesOfBaSingSe}} Tales of Ba Sing Se]]" is a breather-episode made up of short sketches, each focusing on a different major character and how they interact with the city. Iroh's story featured him mourning his late son, Lu Ten. In reality, Iroh's voice actor, Creator/{{Mako}}, had coincidentally just died. The episode was even dedicated to him.* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':** Isaac Hayes, another member of the Church of Scientology, left the show after an episode ("[[Recap/SouthParkS9E12TrappedInTheCloset Trapped in the Closet]]") parodied it. The following episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS10E1TheReturnOfChef The Return of Chef]]" used splicing to ridicule it much much more, as well as [[McLeaned killing Chef off]].** "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E5TerranceAndPhillipBehindTheBlow Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow]]" has a lot of hidden references to actual South Park fans' reactions to Terrance and Philip, such as people being confused whether they're supposed to be animated characters or real people and "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E1TerranceAndPhilipInNotWithoutMyAnus Terrance and Phillip in: 'Not Without My Anus]]'" preempting a popular TV show (see the entry on the AprilFoolsDay page for an explanation of that one).** "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E6Death Death]]" was meant to satire how parents reacted when ''South Park'' first went on their air. The same thing goes to [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut the movie]].** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E5Fishsticks Fishsticks]]", Jimmy writes a joke that Cartman seeks to publicize as ''their'' joke, even though he sat on the couch and ate chips while Jimmy came up with the actual joke (although Cartman remembers it as being the other way around). Much of the episode is dedicated to this conflict, and the episode ends with Cartman apologizing to Jimmy - for not accommodating ''Jimmy's'' belief that he wrote most of the joke. The season that contains this episode was the first to not co-bill Matt Stone as a writer for the show, and during Jimmy and Cartman's interview with Ellen, Cartman is shown with the same hair and clothing that Trey Parker is seen wearing in interviews. However, nobody on the Internet has commented on this because everybody focused on the episode's treatment of Music/KanyeWest.** Stan's whole final speech in "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E8AssBurgers Ass Burgers]]". The previous episode, "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E7YoureGettingOld You're Getting Old]]" had looked like it might change the show dramatically, and fans (mirroring Stan in-universe) were worried that the change would be bad for the show. So in-universe, Stan gets over his emo phase, gives a whole Aesop about how things can change for the better with the entire speech LeaningOnTheFourthWall... only to play StatusQuoIsGod, hit the ResetButton, and return the show to exactly where it was.*** And note that it's not the original status quo but, the last episode where Stan was depressed. Meaning that Stan is still, even if more so, depressed while everything else is the same. Meaning, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny still hang out with Stan, he lives in the same house, goes to the same school, his parents still live together and all this with the added bonus that Stan turned to alcohol to try and be happy.** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E12MechaStreisand Mecha-Streisand]]", Barbara is portrayed as an egotistical, elitist, and power-hungry maniac, but this was because Matt and Trey truly hate her, after she publicly criticized the people of Colorado over a law which prevented gays from being a protected minority. Her response to the episode, claiming it only "contributed to the negativity of our culture" only solidified her as an AcceptableTarget for the South Park creators.* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E13TheJoyOfSect The Joy of Sect]]": Creator/NancyCartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) is a member of the Church of Scientology. Bart's line, "Church, cult. Cult, church. So, we'll get bored someplace else on Sunday. Does this really affect our day-to-day lives?" is a subtle burn against Scientology (and organized religion in general) -- one that apparently didn't cause any backlash from the Church of Scientology (unlike what happened with the ''South Park'' episode "Trapped In The Closet").** During Bart's ImagineSpot in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving Bart vs. Thanksgiving]]", Uncle Sam appears and tell him it's his fault America has lost its way. This is a reference to politicians and conservatives deeming Bart (and the show) a bad influence during the show's early years.** WordOfGod says "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show]]" reflected the strains they felt balancing the expectations from both fans and the network, torn between being relatively realistic and being wackier, such as in the [[UnpleasableFanbase focus group]] scene.-->'''Focus Group Guy:''' Now, how many of you want to see Itchy and Scratchy face real life problems, like the ones you face every day?-->'''Kids:''' Me! Me! I would!-->'''Focus Group Guy:''' And how many of you would like to see just the opposite? Getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?-->'''Kids:''' Me! Me! I would!-->'''Focus Group Guy:''' (''{{beat}}'') So...you want a realistic down-to-Earth show...that's completely off the wall...and swarming with magic robots?-->'''Kids:''' Yeah, that sounds good.* In ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', in the episode "No Hope For Courtney", Mrs. Gordon dies. Originally, Mrs. Gordon was supposed to come out of retirement, but her voice actress (Kathlyn Freeman) died, so the writers redid the ending to reflect this (and dedicated the episode to Freeman).* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' episode "Everything Is Wonderful" can be seen as commentary on Creator/{{Disney}}'s controversial buyout of Creator/MarvelComics, with ComicBook/IronMan acting as Disney and ComicBook/WonderMan acting as Marvel (or the Marvel fans who accused the company of "selling out"). The most blatant bit is when Wonder Man angrily accuses Tony of having stolen his company, to which Tony replies by claiming he only bought the company to ''save it'' after its years of financial troubles.* Several ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episodes have poked fun at Chris (Creator/SethGreen's character) about ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken.'' In "Something, Something, Something Darkside" Chris proclaims he won't let it get to him.-->'''Peter:''' OK, I have another story. It's called ''Film/WithoutAPaddle''.\\'''Chris:''' [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]] you dad!* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Megatron's first line is "Decepticons! I have returned!", drawing attention to Creator/FrankWelker assuming the role in a TF series for the first time since [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 the original '80s animated series]]. Welker did voice the character in video games based on [[Film/{{Transformers}} the Michael Bay movies]] before ''Prime'' premiered, but that's not quite the same - especially since he auditioned for the movie itself, but didn't get the part. Previously getting turned down to voice the character that he himself originated adds to the subtext quite nicely.* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', in the second season finale, one of the binomes makes a comment about how Megabyte's Armored Binome Carriers [=(ABCs)=] had betrayed them. This was after ABC, who have been creatively strangulating the show for two seasons, dropped them unceremoniously.* May or may not have been intentional, but the wrong anthem incident in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E24EquestriaGames Equestria Games]]'' had a real life precedent in 2012, when the parody Kazakhstan anthem from ''Film/{{Borat}}'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2WH9HVJRFk was played at the Kuwait International Shooting Grand Prix]] when Kazakh Maria Dmitrienko won.** A girl whom Creator/LaurenFaust used to babysit posted a [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/03/childhood-memories-of-alicorn-across.html thank you video]] for her. A month later, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 an episode]] came out where we meet Princess Cadance, who used to babysit Twilight Sparkle, and fans were quick to point out the parallel.* At one point in ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', director, Creator/FrizFreleng left the studio to work for [=MGM=]. After a miserable year, Leon Schlesinger gave him his old job back. It's believed that his cartoon, ''Film/YouOughtToBeInPictures'', where Daffy tricks Porky into quitting his job to go into feature films[[note]] Daffy wanted Porky's job as the star of the studio [[/note]], was his way of saying thank you to Schlesinger.* ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTalesInTheHouse'': In "A Gift for Singing", Ichabeezer performs a rap bashing Pa Grape's store that, despite its nasty lyrics, is too much of an EarWorm for anyone to resist. This may be a reference to the controversy that surrounded the "Bunny Song" from the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' video ''Rack, Shack & Benny'', which was a VillainSong that, despite its nasty lyrics, was too much of an EarWorm for children to resist singing aloud (to their parents' dismay).[[/folder]]----